Chapter 12
Keira apologized badly.
First attempt:
“I was joking.”
Rejected.
Second:
“I didn’t think he understood.”
Worse.
Third came months later.
“I wanted him to feel like he didn’t belong because I was angry that Selene treated you like family more than she treated us.”
That was at least true.
Opal’s motive was different.
She believed Troy marrying me should elevate the Drakes permanently.
Bennett represented an obstacle because he already occupied the emotional center she wanted for her future grandchildren.
Not succession only.
Competition.
She had spent months telling Troy:
“You’ll always come after that boy.”
As if husband and son occupy the same category.
Families become cruel when love is treated as ranked seating.
Opal asked to meet me.
I agreed once.
She did not apologize.
Not really.
She said:
“I was protecting my son’s future.”
I looked at her.
“By humiliating mine.”
“He isn’t—”
I raised one finger.
She stopped.
Good.
Then she tried another defense.
“If you had told everyone sooner, no one could have weaponized it.”
Partly true.
Still irrelevant to her choice.
“My secrecy created vulnerability.”
I nodded.
“You chose to exploit it.”
Both truths.
Opal looked surprised that I admitted mine.
People often expect accountability to function like a courtroom defense.
If one person did wrong, the other must be innocent.
No.
I should have built a healthier way for Bennett’s story to be known inside the people closest to us.
Opal still helped stage cruelty.
Keira still said what she said.
Troy still agreed to public exposure.
Silas still designed the crisis.
Responsibility did not cancel across the table.
Opal lost access permanently.
Not because she was Troy’s mother.
May you like
Because after everything, she still called Bennett “the boy” instead of his name.
Sometimes one word tells you whether a person has changed.
