Chapter 8 - The Family Weighs In
By that evening, Adam's phone wouldn't stop buzzing.
His aunt called first. Then a cousin. Then another cousin.
A text lit up his screen before he flipped the phone face-down: *You threw your own mother out over a doll? What is wrong with you?*
Another followed a few minutes later: *Whatever happened, she's still your mother, and what you did was WRONG.*
By the next morning, relatives who hadn't spoken to Adam in over a year suddenly had strong opinions. One uncle told him he should apologize "before it tore the whole family apart." An aunt asked, point blank, whether we really thought some dolls were worth humiliating an elderly woman over.
Diane had kept her promise. She'd talked. The only question was whether she'd told the truth.
"She got to everybody first," Adam said, staring at his phone like it had betrayed him.
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"Then let her talk," I said. "Sooner or later, somebody's going to ask what actually happened."
Adam didn't look convinced. Honestly, for the next few days, neither was I.
