#rue trusts her mom to no end to keep beanie safe when she's not around. and maria knows that when rue's not working she's “unwinding”

[cntrft]

there's a sort of codependency when it comes to rue, her mother and her mother. maria was involved in an affair, kept rue despite knowing her lover wouldn't have helped due to having another family already - instead he not only recognised the baby but was somewhat present ( it's the bare minimum, he felt morally obliged to and was obvious. rue cut him off in her teens eventually to spare both )

then there's rue who's lived in a shoebox with her mom for most of her life, watched her make sacrifices over and over. she doesn't want that kind of life for her kid, but also she's so easily starry eyed by oceans of promises that she just caves in. and the thing is that if it wasn't for her mom, rue would have it hard - who would pick up beanie from preschool? who would watch her when rue has work to do? sure as hell not dan, unless he feels like sitting in one place instead of calling 30mins in because "something came up" but it's really just him getting bored.

and sure now neither three of them lives in a shoebox anymore but there's always that part where it's obvious all three can only count on each others. and it breaks rue's heart because she can see the disappointment in beanie's eyes when dan cancels plans but also she gets to grow up with a grandma, which is something she never got to do. and yeah rue and maria have a lot of fights and there is some resentment underneath layers of unspoken words but they're honestly all they've got.