A coward who wanted to protect his child but couldn’t would have said, weakly, ineffectually, but sincerely, Mom, please don’t. He would have failed to stop her, but the failure would have been a failure of courage in the right direction.

Luca’s failure was not in that direction.

He had not failed to protect his daughter.

He had succeeded at protecting his mother — had used what influence he had over her not to stop the abuse but to make it discreet, had taken his mother’s side against his child and asked only that the taking of sides be done quietly.

That is not weakness.

That is a choice, made clearly, in favor of the wrong person.