“No,” I said.
She exhaled sharply.
“Whatever issue you have with Thomas has nothing to do with my son.”
Amanda held up one finger, signaling for me to let Brenda continue.
“The school is threatening to suspend his enrollment,” Brenda said.
“You can’t punish a child because your marriage failed.”
The cruelty of that sentence was almost elegant.
She had helped break my marriage, mocked my pregnancy, and watched me leave with one suitcase.
Now she was using her son to turn my boundary into a moral failure.
“I didn’t enroll Tyler,” I said.
“I didn’t sign a legal agreement to pay his tuition.”
“You. agreed to support this family.
We all heard you.”
Amanda began writing.
“Did Thomas tell you I hired a lawyer?” I asked.
The line went quiet.
When Brenda spoke again, her voice had changed.
“You don’t have proof of anything.”
Amanda reached into the folder and placed a formal evidence-preservation notice beside my ultrasound photo.
