Chapter 23
Emma met Bianca when she was fifteen.
Her choice.
Sophia said no first.
Then stopped.
Emma noticed.
“You were going to say no.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I remember being shoved into a wall while pregnant.”
Fair.
Emma waited.
Sophia continued.
“That is my memory.”
Another pause.
“Your question is different.”
They spoke with Dr. Patel.
Bianca had completed treatment years earlier.
No contact violations.
No attempts to reach Emma through other people.
One letter.
One acknowledgment.
Nothing else.
The meeting could be structured.
Neutral office.
Forty minutes.
Sophia next door.
Raffaele was not invited.
He objected.
Sophia ignored him.
That was healthy.
Bianca entered looking older.
No bridal image left.
No reason there should have been.
Emma noticed her hands first.
Empty.
“Hi.”
Bianca swallowed.
“Hello, Emma.”
Silence.
Then Emma asked:
“Did you know scissors could cut me?”
Bianca’s face changed.
“Yes.”
Sophia closed her eyes in the adjoining room.
Emma continued.
“Then why dress while I wearing?”
“I was angry.”
“That’s not answer.”
Bianca nodded.
“No.”
She tried again.
“I wanted to damage the dress in front of your mother.”
“Why me?”
“Because Gregory told me the dress represented Sophia humiliating me.”
Emma frowned.
“But you knew I was three.”
“Yes.”
“So dress wasn’t mine?”
Bianca looked confused.
“It was yours.”
“No.”
Emma leaned forward.
“You were using it to talk to Mom.”
Bianca became still.
“Yes.”
That was the answer.
The dress belonged to Emma.
The conflict did not.
Bianca had used something physically attached to a child as a message between adults.
Emma asked:
“Did you want Mom angry?”
“Yes.”
“Did Gregory?”
“I think so.”
“Did that make you do it?”
“No.”
Immediate.
Good.
Emma continued.
“Did you hate me?”
“No.”
“Did you think cheap?”
Bianca looked down.
“I thought what Gregory told me was true.”
“That not same question.”
No.
Bianca understood.
“I used the word because I wanted to insult your mother through you.”
Emma stared.
“Why not insult her?”
Ugly.
Simple.
Bianca’s eyes filled.
“Because hurting something she loved felt more powerful.”
Sophia had to look away.
Emma did not.
“That’s bad.”
“Yes.”
“Are you sorry?”
“Yes.”
“Would you do it now?”
“No.”
“Because treatment?”
“Partly.”
“What else?”
Bianca thought.
“Because I understand now that feeling humiliated did not give me permission to humiliate someone else.”
Emma nodded.
The meeting ended.
No hug.
No next meeting scheduled.
Outside, Sophia asked:
“How are you?”
Emma thought.
“Okay.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Mostly.”
“Do you want to see her again?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophia nodded.
No pressure.
At dinner that evening Raffaele asked anyway.
Sophia stared.
He stopped.
“Right.”
Emma smiled.
“Grandpa still trouble.”
May you like
“Yes,” Sophia said.
Always.
