Chapter 9 - “DAD KEPT YOU FROM ME”Tessa regretted saying it almost immediately.
But she had said.
On first secret call months before therapy:
“Your dad kept you from me.”
Eli absorbed.
“What?”
“He made it hard.”
“Did Naomi?”
Tessa hesitated.
“I think she likes being only woman there.”
That was speculation.
But Eli heard fact.
“Does she not want you?”
“I don’t know.”
“She’s always bossing.”
Tessa:
“Maybe because she wants be your mom.”
That sentence became poison.
Naomi later asked Eli to unload dishwasher.
“You’re not my mom.”
Naomi asked bedtime screen off.
“You’re not my mom.”
Naomi offered ride.
“I have a mom.”
Each time Tessa’s voice behind.
Tessa used Eli's resentment to soothe own shame.
If Naomi stole, Tessa didn’t lose through choices.
Therapy exposed.
Tessa said:
“I should never have told you Naomi wanted replace me.”
Eli’s face hardened.
“But she does.”
Naomi, invited that session:
“No.”
“You act.”
“I act like stepmother.”
“What difference?”
“I don’t ask you call me Mom.”
“I don’t tell you your mother doesn’t matter.”
“I don’t stop contact.”
Eli:
“You hit.”
Naomi swallowed.
“Yes.”
He wielded because true.
She continued:
“And if you never forgive that, I understand.”
Eli looked surprised.
“But it still doesn't make statement true.”
Tessa watched.
Maybe this was first time saw Naomi not competing.
She said:
“I was jealous.”
Eli turned.
“What?”
Tessa:
“I heard you ask Naomi about school.”
“I heard you call her when you broke wrist last year.”
“I hated.”
Naomi had driven ER because Graham flight delayed.
Tessa didn't know until later.
“I thought that meant you didn’t need me.”
Eli:
“So you made her bad?”
Tessa cried.
“Yes.”
Some.
Graham:
“And I made you think Tessa didn’t try.”
He joined.
Eli looked between parents.
“You both used me.”
No one defended.
Graham:
“Sometimes, yes.”
Tessa:
“Yes.”
Naomi:
“I got pulled in too.”
Eli’s face crumpled.
“I hate this.”
He left room with therapist permission.
Dr. Cole said let.
Adults sat.
No one won.
After session, Eli texted Bryce:
Parents are full of shit.
Bryce replied:
Told you.
Then:
Come hang Saturday. Cole bringing us to garage.
Eli knew he wasn't supposed meet Bryce without telling.
He went anyway.
There, Bryce smoked.
Held pack.
“Want one?”
Eli hesitated.
“Never?”
“No.”
Bryce laughed.
“Your stepmom would cry.”
“Shut up.”
“Do it.”
Eli took.
Did not smoke there.
He put in pocket.
“Later.”
Bryce handed lighter.
“Proof.”
Eli grinned.
That was cigarette Naomi saw.
It was less addiction than rebellion carried home.
A prop.
A challenge.
But tobacco did not care why teenager tried.
Naomi cared.
The lie afterward mattered more than cigarette.
Because Eli had learned from adults:
May you like
Narrative can be weapon.
Now everyone had to teach different.
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