It’s a lot easier to condemn someone you don’t know. When a good friend of family member does something horrible, that we feel is out of character for the person we know them as, it can be hard to reconcile those things and come to grips with that.

My sister is friends with a girl who’s father was a pretty prolific serial killer. When she first found out she had no idea, she just knew him as a pretty normal dad. Eventually she was able to accept that he was that person, but it took time, and I have to image that doesn’t completely erase the man she knew him to be before she found out who else he was.

It makes sense for Ashton to stay quiet while he is sorting all that out, assuming he didn’t know all along.