Chapter 18: Biased blindness
When Inez didn’t reply at once, Maria frowned and pressed on. "Did you not hear what I said, Inez?"
Trying to chew the toast as fast as she could, Inez replied, "I did."
"Then why are you not replying?" Maria questioned as she buttered up a toast and handed it to her husband like a good wife and mate.
"I don’t think that it is necessary, Mom. I am way past the age where I need my mommy to make the decisions for me," Inez remarked flippantly.
She had nothing against her mother. The woman made a mistake by falling in love with a man who swept her off her feet and then left her alone to fend for herself and their child.
It was only understandable that Maria hated Inez’s father for leaving her.
While she wanted a home and a family, Jared wanted to explore more of the sea and the ocean. At least that was what Maria told her.
’He wanted freedom and I needed a home,’ she had told six-year-old Inez when she asked where her father was for the first time.
Thus, Inez didn’t blame her mother for moving on with a man who gave her what she wanted. A family, the protection of a pack and a mate.