I Won't Let You Wilt

You've got to be kidding

There was a possibility his mom was straight up lying through her teeth in that email. It was plausible that she really did tell detective Jawsum the truth, that she was only begging him not to press charges against her so that she could have time to come up with a better plan to force him to return to her.

But what can she even do right now?

Jump me in an alley, put a bag over my head, kidnap me?

Before separating from Basil this evening, they'd made a promise to each other.

If either of them went missing for more than twenty-four hours, the other would use Basil's grant money to hire a lawyer to press their counter charges against his mom and detective Jawsum. It was a pact to prevent themselves from not taking action in case communication became impossible. So, they had an answer to the situation where one of them got kidnapped.

There really wasn't anything else he could think of that his mom could try to do.

And what's with this 'don't show this email to anyone else' in the subject line?

From the urgency of the message, he could believe that his mom had really gotten herself into deep trouble. Yet the message itself was just a plea for clemency, not a request for help or anything like that.

The whole tone of that email is pretty pathetic.

If she's not in trouble herself, that just leaves the issue of her lying to me...

He saw two options he could take. Either he continued with his plan to press charges and reveal to the whole world what he did to his sister, or he believed his mom's words and do nothing until the situation got clarified.

The vengeful part of himself wanted to press charges without question. After everything she'd done, all the emotional damage she'd inflicted upon him and Basil, he wanted to see her go down in flames even if it meant he had to stick his own arm and leg into the fire.

Another part of him could only think of what pressing counter charges would mean for Basil.

Basil and I would still have to answer for manslaughter...

Even if we were only twelve at the time, we can't be certain that the jury would forgive us of our crime as adults.

In the worst case, we might end up becoming separated from each other.

Sunny's fingers trembled.

He really wanted to press those charges, or at least tell his mom that he was going to do it and see how she responded.

I'm...

I'm so angry.

But it won't help Basil.

If she really can't do anything to us, if we currently hold all the power in this battle, it's better to not press those charges so that we erase any chance of us getting in trouble with the law.

Anger won't solve anything...

To preserve our happiness, I have to sit still and do nothing for now.

It was so hard to tell himself that.

His anger was not yet abated, and he still wanted to type an angry reply to his mom to let her know that he was so done with her. He was this close to going no contact on her. If he ever saw that detective around again he'd have to devote mental effort not to instinctively throw a punch at his face.

...Maybe no contact could be a good idea.

Replying to his mom's email meant acknowledgement, certainty. Even if he screamed at her with rage in text form, she'd feel some security from the fact that he'd read her email. And if he threatened to press charges without actually doing so, he might push her over the edge, cause her to do something drastic.