Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 134

"Then you can tell your teacher that your dad didn't finish it. I will help you communicate with the teacher, but I won't do his part for him."

Leo's tears fell.

He wasn't blaming his mother.

It was just the first time he realized that she truly wasn't going to swoop in and carry everything for him like she used to.

This realization frightened him, yet it also brought a faint sense of relief.

Because if his mother no longer took on everything, maybe the mother who always pretended everything was fine could feel a little lighter too.

Wren watched him cry and didn't immediately try to coax him out of it.

Only after he wiped his own tears did she speak. "Leo, it's okay to be sad. Being sad isn't useless."

Sniffling, Leo asked, "So is it okay if I want Dad to learn?"

"Yes."

"Is it also okay if I don't want Willow to come around?"

Wren's spoon paused.

The diner was loud; people at the next table were laughing, and the owner was yelling orders into the kitchen. But that sentence landed in her ears as fragile as a thin thread.

She looked at her son. "Yes."

It was as if Leo had finally unleashed words he'd kept locked up for an eternity. "When she came, everyone thought she was my mom. Dad didn't say she wasn't."

Wren's fingertips tightened slightly.

She thought she was past the point of being stung by these things.

But it turned out she still was.

Only this time, after the sting faded, she didn't swallow the emotion whole, nor did she turn and soothe the child by saying 'it's okay.'

She simply asked, "That made you feel uncomfortable, didn't it?"

Leo nodded.

"Then you can tell your dad that," Wren said. "And you can tell your teacher, too. You don't have to pretend you're fine just to make the adults look good."

Leo looked down and took a spoonful of soup.

Halfway through, he asked again, "Mom, are you uncomfortable too?"

Wren looked at him.

This question was far harder to answer than any interrogation Lawrence had ever thrown at her.

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