Chapter 13
Emma Caradonna hated mirrors for almost a month.
Not all mirrors.
The tall one inside her bedroom.
The one where she had practiced turning her head before the birthday because she liked the braid hanging over one shoulder.
After Bianca cut it, Emma refused to sit in that chair.
Vincent’s first instinct was to remove the mirror.
The child therapist stopped him.
“Ask her.”
So he did.
“Do you want it gone?”
Emma looked at it.
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“What do you want?”
She thought.
“Move chair.”
Vincent moved the chair.
Simple.
No symbolism.
No dramatic destruction.
The mirror stayed.
The chair moved.
Emma began using it again two weeks later.
A stylist evened the haircut into a shorter style.
Vincent told her she looked beautiful.
The therapist corrected him privately afterward.
“Don’t make beauty the repair.”
He frowned.
“What am I supposed to say?”
“That she gets to decide what she likes about herself.”
That was harder.
He tried.
Emma eventually announced she liked her short hair because it was faster to wash.
Vincent accepted the verdict.
Ruby’s recovery looked different.
She had to learn that Emma being praised did not create consequences for her.
The first time the girls saw each other after the investigation began, Emma ran toward Ruby.
Ruby froze.
Emma stopped.
“Do you not want hug?”
Ruby began crying.
Not because she disliked Emma.
Because no one had ever asked first.
“Yes.”
Emma hugged her.
Vincent watched from across the room.
Emma Brooks stood nearby.
She was still working at the estate, but only four days a week now.
She had applied to a community college early-childhood-development program.
Vincent learned about it after she had already applied.
That pleased him.
She had not needed his permission.
One afternoon he asked:
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier about the classes?”
Brooks smiled faintly.
“Because I’m twenty-four.”
Fair.
Then she became serious.
“You want to know what bothered me most?”
“What?”
“When I tried to tell you about Ruby, I knew I needed the perfect explanation before you’d stop.”
Vincent said nothing.
“If Marcus walked in and said he had a problem, you listened first.”
She looked at him.
“When staff walked in, you evaluated whether we were causing inconvenience.”
That hurt because it was true.
Vincent did not defend himself.
“I’m sorry.”
Brooks nodded.
Not forgiveness.
Acknowledgment.
Enough.
Vincent changed the household reporting system.
Any concern involving a child went directly to him, the household manager, and a designated outside child-safety professional.
No relative could intercept it.
No capo could summarize it.
No family status could turn a report into gossip.
May you like
It seemed embarrassingly basic after the fact.
Most useful reforms did.
