Chapter 12 - Leah Asked Aaron Why He Locked the Door
Leah requested one attorney-mediated meeting with Aaron.
I advised against it.
Her therapist said the decision was hers.
She went.
Not alone.
Lawyers present.
Security nearby.
Aaron looked exhausted.
Leah asked one question.
“Why did you lock the bedroom door?”
He began immediately.
“You were out of control.”
“No.”
“You had taken medication.”
“You gave it to me.”
“I was trying to calm you.”
“You locked the door from the outside.”
He looked away.
Leah waited.
Finally:
“I needed time.”
“For what?”
“To figure out what you’d sent.”
“The evidence?”
“Yes.”
Not:
To get you help.
Not:
To protect the babies.
Time to find evidence.
Leah nodded as if confirming something to herself.
Then:
“Why did you come to Claire’s?”
Aaron cried.
“The kids were there.”
“That isn’t why you left me behind.”
He stopped.
Leah leaned forward.
“You drove away while I was drugged and locked upstairs.”
His mouth tightened.
“I knew you were breathing.”
I heard about that sentence later and hated him for it more than almost anything else.
I knew you were breathing.
The minimum standard he had reduced marriage to.
Leah continued.
“You chose a metal box over coming back upstairs.”
Aaron put his head in his hands.
“I was trying to save everything.”
“What is everything?”
“My company.”
Silence.
“My reputation.”
More silence.
“Our family.”
Leah looked at him.
“You keep putting family last in the list and calling it first.”
Aaron started crying harder.
She did not.
Then she asked:
“Did you love us?”
“Yes.”
Immediately.
She believed him.
That was what made the story harder.
Aaron loved his children.
He may even have loved Leah.
Love did not prevent him from deciding his livelihood, identity, and control mattered more when they collided.
Leah stood.
“I needed to know whether you understood what you chose.”
Aaron looked up.
“Do you?”
He did not answer.
May you like
Leah left.
She never asked him again.
