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The conversation I had with Heath lasted all of five minutes. He was understandably upset. One, because he was more than seven hours away and couldn’t be here to handle it, and two, because Trevor put himself in the position to be accused of such a thing. We both agreed that maybe it’s time that Trevor re-evaluates his friends.

With Harper at my feet, I’m biting my nails waiting for Liam to leave Trevor’s room. My gaze drifts to the clock above the fireplace, signaling that they’ve been in there for forty-five minutes. When Liam finally comes from Trevor’s room, I let out a sigh of relief. Pulling my finger from my mouth, I sit up on the couch.

“Is Heath okay?” Liam asks as he sits down next to me, placing Trevor’s phone on the table in front of me. Harper moves her head from my feet into Liam’s lap.

“As okay as can be expected. Being so far away when your child needs you isn’t the best feeling.” I internally cringe. “But I’m sure you know that.”

“Yeah,” he pats my leg, “I know a little bit about it.”

“Is he doing this because of our split?”

“Being a kid? Hanging out with the wrong kids? No. He told me that he didn’t even know his friends were doing things like that. When he wanted to leave, they started to taunt him, telling him that he didn’t have the ‘balls’ to stick around. He didn’t run because he knew he wasn’t doing anything wrong but he also knew that he wasn’t going to throw his friends under the bus.”

“You promise that it’s not because of the split.”

“Whitney, even if you and Heath would have stayed together, chances are this would have happened at some point. Why? Because he’s a kid.”

“I don’t agree with that. I didn’t have to deal with anything like this with Charlie.”

“That’s because Trevor is not Charlie, and he’s not Jenna. He’s Trevor. Each of your kids will bring you individual joys and heartaches. Just because you didn’t catch Charlie doesn’t mean he never did anything. He might have been better at not getting caught.” He shrugs like it’s nothing.

“That’s not very reassuring, Liam.”

He smiles. “I know I’m not going to ease your mind. I’m just trying to make you see that you have three kids who are going to live three completely different lives. You can’t compare Trevor to Charlie. It’s like comparing apples to oranges, and that’s not fair.”

“What am I supposed to do with this? How am I supposed to handle it?”

“Well, I’m not his parent, but I figured first things first, so that’s why I took his phone.” He hands me Trevor’s phone, “I didn’t know if you wanted to remove his television or video games from his room, so I didn’t touch those, but I can go back in there and pull them if you need me to.”

“No, that’s okay.”

“He needs to be held accountable for his poor decision making by going there in the first place. I agree one hundred percent with community service. It might not be his mess, but he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. He needs to help clean up his mess, and he needs to be on a short leash for a while because he’s going to push you if he thinks he can get away with it.”

I regard him for a bit. “Did Dillon do something similar to Trevor?”

“No,” he shakes his head, “I did. But much worse. Before I got serious about life, I was on a downward spiral. Nothing in life was making me happy. I had a good home life. Loving and supporting parents, but that didn’t matter to me. I was angry at life, and I took it out in every way I thought I could. I stole, and not just small stuff. I stole a couple of cars. Boy, I was lucky too, because the people who I took from never pressed charges. If they had, I wouldn’t have been able to fly jets.” He shakes his head, staring off into the distance. “My parents stood by the police and not by my side. They weren’t wrong, and their tough love shined a light on a new direction in life.”

“So you were a troublemaker?”

“No, not really. I was just a kid making stupid choices. Trevor’s a good kid. He’s a bit off the right path right now, but I have no doubt he’ll get back on it and soon. You need to have faith in him, even when he stumbles.”

“It’s hard to have faith when I now know he’s so easily swayed. What if those kids were doing something far worse and Trevor wasn’t able to convince the cops?”

“You can’t live your life with so many what-ifs. That’s way too much uncertainty. It will drive you crazy. Listen to your gut, Whitney. As parents, that’s all we can do.”

“That’s always easier said than done.”