“After.” “Why?” He had explanations. He did not have an answer he respected.
“I think I was scared Sloan would leave if I embarrassed her,” he said finally. Lucy frowned. “So you let Grandma be embarrassed instead?” Children can be brutal without cruelty.
Harrison sat down across from her. “Yes,” he said. “That’s what I did.” Lucy nodded once as if the problem had at least become mathematically clear.
The next morning Harrison called a therapist recommended by Claire. Sloan and Harrison officially ended their relationship two weeks before Thanksgiving. The final argument happened over the Gucci bag, fittingly enough. Sloan had received Eleanor’s restitution check and deposited it.
Then she told Harrison she wanted him to reimburse her again because the replacement bag she wanted now cost more than the original documented model. Harrison thought she was joking. She was not. “Your mother caused this,” Sloan said.
“My mother paid what the legal agreement required.” “That does not make me whole.” “It literally does in the property sense.” Sloan stared at him with disgust.
“You sound like her now.” Harrison felt something inside him go quiet. For months, those words had frightened him. You sound like her.
You’re choosing her. You’re still a little boy asking Mommy’s permission. Sloan knew exactly where his pride was tender and pressed there whenever she needed movement. That evening it stopped working.