A short silence stretched between them.
“He needs to understand,” Richard continued, “that the world is not going to stop for his feelings. I’m not going to keep watching him fall apart over small things and pretend that’s acceptable.”
“Then stop letting her make every decision,” Sibil said simply. “That’s the whole problem.”
Another silence. Then Richard said the sentence that I have thought about every single day since: “After everything settles, it won’t be her call anymore.”
The video ended.
I stood in my entryway holding that iPad. Richard was somewhere behind me. He had come inside and gone straight upstairs—completely normal, completely unbothered. I could hear him moving around up there, opening drawers, just existing, like nothing had happened.
I looked at Tyler. He was watching my face carefully, the way children do when they’re trying to measure how serious something is by reading their parents’ expression. I kept my face steady.
“How long has it been like this at grandma’s house?” I asked quietly.
He thought about it for a moment. “Last summer, too, but not as much.”
“Did dad ever say anything directly to you about any of this?”
Tyler looked at the floor. “He said I needed to stop being so sensitive. That it made things harder for everyone.”