She sadly sighs. “The truth. Mommy threatened to tell a really bad lie about you guys that could’ve gotten you into a lot of trouble, then she was going to move across the country where Katie wouldn’t be able to see you anymore.”
“I can’t tell her that.”
“Yes, youcan. And youhaveto.” She makes me look her in the eyes. “The video has already been seen by some of the parents of her classmates. Lucas didn’t just tag Jerilyn’s employer—he tagged Katie’s school and the PTO,hisschool and their PTO, and others. And who he didn’t tag, others did.”
She pulls out her phone and shows me a series of Facebook screencaps from the post, taken just before Lucas deleted it. It’d been shared over fifty times, had been viewed over four hundred times, and had dozens of additional tags added to it by others.
The outraged comments roasting Jerilyn definitely tell a tale of the tide being in our favor and not hers.
Shit.
“It’sgoodthat happened,” Zoey insists. “Community policing in action. Warning others about her bullshit. Good thing she’s moving, because her name’s now mud in this area.” She cups my face in her hands. “Youhaveto tell Katie,” she gently says. “Better it comes from you, and better it happens tonight.”
We’ve had the stranger-danger and good-touch/bad-touch talks with Katie already. I started that two years ago, when she entered Pre-K. We’ve had talks about right and wrong, lying, respecting people, consent—all age-appropriate, of course.
The man who’s tried to be nice and keep things smooth and just get along with the narcissist is now at war with the enraged father and husband who wants to nuke the site from orbit and salt the land before it has a chance to cool.
In the middle of all of this is a little girl who just wants to grow up and be happy. Who deserves a calm, peaceful childhood.
Who didn’t ask to be born to a narcissist.
I slowly nod.
We emerge from the bedroom and return to the living room, where Lucas is already helping Katie with her homework. That’s when Arlo walks in.
“Perfect timing,” I tell him. Then, in a whisper, I add, “Film this.”
He nods and takes out his phone. I want proof of this so if Jerilyn is stupid enough to come back at me later, or tries to twist things around, I have a record of how I handled it.
“We need a family meeting,” I say once Arlo gives me the cue that he’s filming. I sit on the couch next to Katie. “We have to talk, sweetheart.”
She looks up at me. Thank god she’s got my brown eyes. “Am I in trouble, Daddy?”
“No. Absolutely not. You didn’t doanythingwrong.” Arlo and Zoey stand on the other side of the coffee table and quietly watch. “Mommy, however, got caught doing something very,verywrong.”
Katie scowls. “What did she do?”
“You know how we’ve talked about lying?”
She gravely nods. “It’s bad.”
“And do you know how we’ve talked about what kind of touches are okay, and what touches aren’t? And how you are supposed to tell me or Aunt Zoey or Uncle Arlo or Mommy if someone tries to touch you in a bad way? How you can always screamno?”
She nods again.
There’s no way through this hell except full steam ahead. “Mommy threatened to get me, Lucas, and Uncle Arlo in very bad trouble by lying to the cops to say we touched you in a bad way.”
It takes her a moment to digest that, and we don’t interrupt her. “But you never did that.”
“I know. She was going to lie to the police and tell them that.”
“Why?”
“Because she wanted to move away and take you with her so I’d never see you again. I told her she couldn’t do that, because then I’d never get to be with you.”
Fuck it.I pull out my phone and show her the video. The first one, taken outside the house by Lucas.
I’d rather not show her the second one for a whole host of reasons, but I’ll keep a copy of it just in case I ever need to do that very thing.
