Chapter 6
Clara did not mean my mother.
She meant Evelyn’s.
Margaret Vale.
My late wife’s mother.
I had not seen her in two years.
After Evelyn died, Margaret and I fought.
She accused Hawthorne of swallowing her daughter.
I accused her of trying to pull Clara away while I was grieving.
Both partly true.
She left.
Then Sebastian apparently brought her back.
Secretly.
Why?
Because the greenhouse sessions needed emotional leverage.
Margaret resembled Evelyn.
Same eyes.
Same voice when soft.
After Everett finished coaching Clara, Margaret entered and told her she needed to cooperate so “Mommy’s family would still be welcome after the wedding.”
I stared at Sebastian when he admitted it.
“You used my dead wife’s mother.”
He corrected me.
“She participated.”
Fair.
Different guilt.
Margaret arrived the next day.
Older.
Tired.
Angry before speaking.
“I thought you were erasing Evelyn.”
There.
Her grievance.
Rosalind moving photographs.
Changing rooms.
Sebastian told Margaret I supported it.
Lie.
He said the new marriage would eventually move Clara away from Vale influence.
So Margaret agreed to the sessions because she believed helping Clara accept Rosalind publicly would buy her continued private access.
Everyone bargaining around a child.
Rosalind wanted maternal legitimacy.
Margaret wanted grandmother access.
Sebastian wanted household stability.
Everett wanted Pierce influence.
Vincent wanted favor with Sebastian.
Clara wanted everyone to stop being upset.
I looked at Margaret.
“Did you ever ask Clara what she wanted?”
Her face collapsed.
No.
That was the disease.
Every adult claimed to act for her.
Nobody asked.
Margaret started crying.
“I only wanted to stay in her life.”
“Then why make her earn yours?”
Silence.
That landed.
Then Margaret whispered:
“Because Sebastian said if I refused, you’d never let me see her again.”
Of course.
Another relationship controlled through imagined authority.
May you like
Sebastian had made himself broker of everyone’s access.
That was his real power.
