Page 21 of Jury Woman, Part 4 of 6

"I know." She hesitated. Then, in a smaller voice: "He did it because of me."

"Honey—"

"Nobody's ever done anything like that for me before." She pressed her chin into the pillow. "I mean, I know it was stupid. I know he's in huge trouble. But when I found out, I kind of... I don't know. I went into his room and sat on his bed, and we talked for, like, two hours. Actual talking. We haven't done that since he was in elementary school."

I opened my mouth to deliver the lecture I'd been assembling since the words punched Scott. The one about solving problems with your words, about consequences, about how hitting someone is never the answer.

Then I looked at my daughter's face.

She wasn't hiding in her room today. She wasn't crying. For the first time in days, she was out in the living room, talking to me, almost smiling. Her little brother had taken a swing at the boy who humiliated her, and whatever else it had broken, it had cracked open something between the two of them that I'd been trying to glue back together from miles away.

I didn't approve. I would never approve.

But I understood.

"I'm glad you two talked," I said carefully. "I really am. But violence is never okay, Lily. You know that, right?"

"I know, Mom."

"And the next time Josh wants to defend your honor, tell him a strongly worded text will do."

She laughed, a real laugh. Then she sobered. "Do you think he'll be okay?"

I thought of Warren, standing on the Hendersons' front porch, trying to sell them on the idea of not pressing charges, for everyone's sake. Warren was nothing if not a good salesman.

"I don't know, sweetheart," I said. "But I hope so."

October 22, Thursday

JILL HAD swapped her usual legal pad for a mug of tea this afternoon, and she held it in both hands as I talked, letting me get all the way through it without interrupting. Lily being stood up. The tears. Josh's punch and expulsion. Warren pleading our son's case to Scott's parents.

"And I missed it all."

"How does that make you feel?"

"I expected to miss some good things—Josh's games, Lily's birthday, the dance. I'd already grieved those things a little, back in July." I rolled yarn onto a ball to keep my hands busy. "But honestly, the worst thing I thought might happen while I was away was a few burnt dinners and a little dirty laundry."

"Does it make you feel… excluded?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Like I'm standing on the other side of a window, watching my house fill up with smoke."

Jill set her mug on the side table. "Isabel, you can't be in two places at once. You have to make peace with the fact that you're where you're most needed at this moment, and trust that the people at home can carry some of the weight for a while."

"Warren can barely carry a grocery bag."

"He seemed to handle this situation okay."

I sighed. "You're right… he did. And I'm sure he convinced them not to press charges. He can be charming."

"Can I ask you something you might not like?"

"You usually do."

"Deep down, are you irritated that it was handled without you?"

I opened my mouth to deny it but couldn't. "A little. No… more than a little."

Jill nodded, as if I'd handed her exactly the answer she'd hoped for.