Years ago, an acting teacher gave me probably the most invaluable piece of advice I've ever had. She said, "Never assume your character is telling the truth." It shocked me, and opened my brain up like a can of sardines.

Never assume your character is telling the truth.
Never assume your character is saying everything there is to say.
Never assume you know what's going on in a scene, because the characters involved always know more than you.

I've learned that the hard way, over and over, when I'm writing. Things I think are one thing turn out to be completely different, sometimes even the opposite of what I thought. There's a great deal more here than just abandonment. It wasn't a one-way street. I had thought that was clear from the last piece I wrote about these two, but I guess it wasn't. Zeke's mother is not some heartless harpy who couldn't be bothered with her son. She's a woman who had to make hard choices, and she made the choice she had to. He's a wounded boy who lashed out and rejected her at the moment when he could have had his mother again. Zeke is not completely innocent here - he almost never is. Life is rarely cut and dried, and family relations are the most complex of all.