Something about her brother's reaction doesn't sit right with Adelaide - he looks even more traumatized when she finishes speaking than when she started, when all she was trying to say was that the world without him is black and white and hollow.
She starts to frown, but then just like that she is shoved out onto that tightrope she foresaw only moments earlier.
Her brother can't know that she came here seeking her own source of birth control because she doesn't trust her husband. He can't know that she suspects that Thomas knocked her up on purpose knowing it wasn't what she wanted. She doesn't even know yet if Rodeo can know she has a son at all. And so she has to think, and think fast.
She pretends like it's just the change in topic that throws her, and she lifts her arms from where they wrapped around herself, tucks her bright hair back and shrugs like the topic is beside the point in her mind now. "No, it's not for me," she says. "I have a... friend. He's a cop, but he's a good guy, helped us get here from Boston and saved my skin a couple times. He's got a heart condition and he needs meds, but he thinks they'll try to keep him inside if they know." The relief that washes over her as the story flows out is intense, but she keeps it down, reels it in. "He doesn't know I'm here."