Last night my son h.i.t me and I didn’t cry. This morning I got out the nice tablecloth, served breakfast like on special occasions, and when he came downstairs smiling he said, “So you finally learned your lesson”… until he saw who was waiting for him at my table.

He then placed a third paper on the table which was a legal notice preventing Wyatt from returning if he didn’t follow the rules. Finally, he left a brochure for a residential treatment center in Vermont that specialized in anger management and substance abuse.

“Your mother agreed to give you one chance at this center before she formally reports the assault to the police,” Harrison added.

“Do you really want to lock me up like I am some kind of crazy person?” Wyatt asked me with shock in his eyes.

“No, I think you have become dangerous to me and to yourself,” I told him.

“Dangerous? After everything I have been through? After he abandoned us for his new life?” Wyatt shouted as fury rose up his neck.

“I am not here to talk about the divorce, I am here because you put your hands on your mother,” Harrison said as he stood up slowly.

“You don’t know anything about my life!” Wyatt screamed.

“I know you quit every job you get, I know you stole money from her, and I know you have kept her living in a state of constant fear,” Harrison said.

Wyatt turned toward me and asked if I was truly afraid of him, and for the first time, I found the strength to tell him the truth.