Chapter 22 - Constance and Reid
Their relationship fractured.
Reid blamed her at first.
“She told you.”
I heard about it in family therapy.
Constance said:
“You were going to tell her the next morning.”
Reid:
“That was my decision.”
“Then why are you angry?”
“Because you made it uglier.”
There.
Both truths.
Therapist asked:
“Who created the custody plan?”
“Me,” Reid said.
“Who agreed to be primary caregiver?”
“Me,” Constance said.
“Who proposed closet locking?”
Reid swallowed.
“I did.”
“Who physically shoved Perry?”
Constance:
“I did.”
No diffusion.
Then Constance said:
“I thought I was rescuing you from a marriage you were too weak to end.”
Reid stared.
“Did I ask?”
“Yes.”
That shut him up.
He had.
Not in those words.
But enough.
Then:
“You also wanted Perry.”
Constance cried.
“Yes.”
There.
She wanted a second chance at motherhood.
Reid had been independent early.
She liked being needed by Perry.
The custody plan fed that.
Not money.
Not inheritance.
May you like
Need.
Adults again turning a child into an answer to their own emptiness.
