Chapter 6 - LENA LOST MORE THAN CUSTODY
Lena lost her apartment.
Not legally.
Emotionally.
She moved out three months after Travis’s arrest.
Said she could not walk through the living room without hearing Noah cry.
Good.
Maybe discomfort had finally become information.
She rented a smaller place.
Two bedrooms.
One for Noah.
Even though he was not allowed overnight yet.
That mattered.
She completed parenting classes.
Therapy.
Domestic-violence education focused on partner behavior and child safety.
Not because a judge forced every part.
Because she finally understood she had normalized warning signs.
Six months later, supervised visits became longer.
Noah started looking forward to them.
That scared me.
Then Dr. Ellis corrected me.
“Loving his mother is not a rejection of what happened.”
I knew that intellectually.
Harder emotionally.
Lena eventually asked me:
“Do you think I’ll ever get him overnight again?”
I answered honestly.
“I don’t know.”
She cried.
Then nodded.
No argument.
May you like
That was different.
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