For the first time that weekend, I began to understand what my husband had been trying to do.
He wasn’t trying to save Tyler from consequences.
He was trying to help Emma discover that she didn’t have to abandon herself to keep someone else happy.
The following afternoon, Emma came home from school unusually quiet.
She dropped her backpack beside the stairs and went directly to her room.
When I checked on her, she was sitting on her bed with her phone in both hands.
“Everything okay?”
She shook her head, then changed her mind.
“I don’t know.”
“Did something happen at school?”
“Tyler wants to talk to me.”
She showed me a message.
Can we talk tomorrow? I need to explain something.
I sat beside her.
“Do you want to hear what he has to say?”
“Yes.”
“Then you can listen. But remember that you don’t owe him a particular answer.”
