Chapter 14
A year after the original gathering, Diane asked me about my threat.
“The meat.”
I knew.
“You really hated me.”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“I deserved anger.”
“Yes.”
Then:
“But not that.”
She meant what I did with the chicken.
“No.”
I agreed.
That surprised her again.
“I crossed a line.”
She looked at me carefully.
“Why admit that?”
“Because I don’t want Evan learning that protecting someone means you can humiliate whoever hurt them.”
Silence.
That mattered to me.
I had spent months teaching Evan food was not a weapon.
I could not keep pretending I had not used food as one too.
Different scale.
Different context.
Still wrong.
Diane whispered:
“I’m sorry I made you become that angry.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
My anger was mine.
Her cruelty explained it.
May you like
It did not own my action.
We both sat with that.
