Saving Noah

Adrianne spends the night with Katie at Noah’s insistence. Noah has noticed a new heaviness in Katie when she visits him at the hospital. Lucas has also told Adrianne that Katie has regressed and is wetting the bed again. Adrianne loves spending time with her daughter, but Noah’s abuse plagues her constantly. She is horrified by what her son underwent. She knows if she reports the rape, no one will take it seriously. In fact, people might think Noah deserved what happened because people are more sympathetic to murderers than they are to pedophiles. Adrianne thinks that though what Noah did was wrong, he never physically hurt the girls. There was no penetration, only touching. The girls had been curious about his body and touched him; he in turn touched them. Adrienne thinks that if they had all been the same age then this would have been akin to playing doctor. To Adrianne’s mind, the girls’ lives weren’t going to be ruined by Noah’s actions, but Noah’s life was in shambles.

Adrianne has begun studying the Death by Dignity Act to consider options for someone like Noah. However, all the available cases were about people with terminal illnesses who’d chosen to die rather than live in pain.