Episode 1276:

“Addie,” Ryley started, but before he could carry on with whatever he’d been about to say, Adria noticed they had company.

“You! I know who you are! What are you doing here? Get out of my house, right now!”

“I’m sorry for the intrusion, I just-”

Adria waved off whatever Jesse was about to say and whirled on her husband, “why did you let him in here? Why would you have coffee with him? He’s the enemy! You don’t invite the enemy for coffee!”

“He’s not the enemy, Ad,” Ryley said in such a calm tone that it made it all the more irritating. “He’s barely more than a kid. And only people like your dad have enemies. Do you really want to be like your dad?”

“Mom’s home!” Russell sang out, skidding into the kitchen on his socks. “Are we going now? Are we going now?”

Russell danced around. A happy dance. Happily oblivious to the drama around him.

Adria wished that feeling was contagious, instead she squashed it in him, too. “Not now, Russell.”

He responded by dropping to his backside on the kitchen floor and dropping his head into his hands. The tears would probably come any minute. Just what the situation needed.

“Jesse, don’t go anywhere just yet,” Ryley said, grabbing their uninvited guest’s shirt sleeve just as he’d been about to exit the kitchen. “Miranda, you need to tell your mom what you just told us about Halloween, even if you think your mom doesn’t want to hear it. She needs to hear it.”

“I don’t want to scare my mom,” Miranda insisted.

“That’s why you haven’t told anyone about what terrified you at the Halloween Fest,” Adria said, crouching down to meet her girl at eye level. “You were afraid I’d be scared, too? Oh, sweetie.” She hugged the stuffing out of her girl, and Russell must have taken his pouting face out of his hands and seen what was going on, he came over and joined the hug. When it was over, she kept both kids in her lap, relaying to both her kids, “you don’t need to worry about scaring me, you can always tell mom anything, that’s how we help each other through stuff, by talking about it. So, squirt, if you’re feeling up to thinking about that night again, tell me what it was that had you scared.” And then we will nail the family responsible for it to the wall. Testimony from her daughter was exactly the sort of thing the lawyers had insisted they’d need in order to make their case stick.

“You’re sure you won’t be scared? We were both scared kind of the same way at the ice cream shop,” Miranda pointed out.

“We’ll be okay together,” Adria said, “now go ahead and tell everyone what Jesse and his parents did at their Halloween Fest that scared after they promised there would be nothing scary.”

“Jesse didn’t do anything. He wasn’t the robber. He’s who scared me.”

Episode 1277 (Still Kids) Coming January 28, 2025