Six months after the mall incident, Megan thought the worst was behind her.
She was wrong.
The divorce mediation was scheduled for nine on a Monday morning.
At 8:17, her seventeen-year-old daughter Emma walked into the kitchen holding her phone.
“Mom?”
Megan looked up.
Emma’s face was pale.
“What happened?”
“Dad sent me something.”
Megan’s stomach tightened.
Grant had been careful since the separation.
He never insulted Megan directly in front of Emma.
Instead, he used softer words.
Your mother is emotional.
Your mother misunderstood what happened.
Your mother is trying to punish me.
Megan had refused to answer in kind.
Whatever Grant had done to her, he was still Emma’s father.
She would not make her daughter choose sides.
“Do you want me to read it?” Megan asked.
Emma nodded.
The message was long.
Grant wrote that Megan had “destroyed the family over one misunderstanding.”
He said the mall confrontation had been staged to humiliate him.
Then came the sentence that made Megan stop breathing.
If your mother hadn’t attacked Tessa, I never would have had to push her away.