“I agree,” Jenks says. “But there’s a difference between protecting Sadie… and creating a spectacle Sadie will have to deal with afterward.”
Because kids talk. Parents talk. And Carol weaponizes both.
I drag a hand over my face. The room feels too small, the walls are closing in on a pressure valve I’ve been dealing with since the day Marissa left.
“She’s six,” I say quietly. “She’s six, and he told her she wasn’t wanted.”
My voice cracks on the last word. I hate that. Hate it more than the buzzing in my pocket or the headlines still crawling under my skin.
“Boone,” Jenks says, leaning forward now. “I will address Eli’s behavior. Personally. I’ve already called him in thismorning. And his mother.” She pauses. “Though I expect the conversation with Carol will be… lengthier.”
My jaw ticks. “She’ll blame Sadie.”
“She’ll try,” Jenks corrects. “But I won’t let her.”
I force myself to breathe. Once. Twice. The kind of inhale they tell you to take at the doctor’s office, but never works.
“So Sadie doesn’t know you are informing me about this?”
Jenks shakes her head. “No. Micah was the one who reported it. Sadie didn’t want to upset you.”
My kid didn’t want to upset me, and that hurts worse than anything Eli said.
“Okay,” I whisper. “Okay. Thank you for telling me.”
She nods, kind but firm. “I’ll keep you updated. And Boone…?” She waits until I meet her eyes. “Sadie is loved. She’s supported. And she’s exceptionally resilient. This won’t break her.”
I swallow hard. “Yeah,” I say. “But I damn sure won’t let it repeat.”
When I step outside the office, the hall looks blurry around the edges. Not from tears, those would require the part of me that still cracks open easily. No, this blur comes from the pressure behind my eyes, the one that saysyou should have been there,even though I can’t follow her into every classroom.
I get back in the truck and sit there staring at the steering wheel, waiting for the answer to raising a daughter in a world that sometimes feels designed to cut her knees out from under her.
It doesn’t offer one.
It just sits there. Same as me.
The phone buzzes again.
Another notification.
Another tag.
Another message from a world that wants its teeth in Delaney and is now sinking them into anything within reach.
Including me.
Including Sadie.
My hands tighten around the leather until the tendons in my wrists burn.
I can’t go after Carol. I can’t destroy Dottie’s modem. I can’t stop the town from talking, not right now.
But I can control one thing.
I put the truck in drive.
I can make damn sure Sadie never doubts she’s wanted.
