Chapter 6
I did not understand at first.
Henry was six.
Heir was a word adults placed on him.
Not something he carried consciously.
“What does that mean?”
Derek swallowed.
Vincent had grown impatient.
Financial guardianship alone would not weaken me enough.
So he proposed a succession shift.
Not violence.
Not disappearance.
Narrative.
Henry would be described as fragile.
Too attached to his father.
Too anxious.
Too young even by future standards.
Violet, meanwhile, would be shaped as the stronger child.
More independent.
Closer to Camille.
Then years later, if succession arguments emerged, Vincent’s branch could claim Violet represented continuity better.
Camille as her guardian.
Derek as operational uncle.
My daughter turned into a future flag.
My son turned into a future weakness.
Both before either could read properly.
I stared at Camille.
“You agreed?”
She started crying.
“Not that part.”
I believed her.
Partly.
“What part did you agree to?”
“The trust.”
“Manipulating the trust?”
“Yes.”
“Making yourself guardian?”
“Yes.”
“Teaching Violet to depend on you?”
Her face broke.
“Yes.”
Enough.
Shared conspiracy does not require shared final destination.
Vincent wanted succession.
Camille wanted relevance.
Derek wanted leverage.
Different motives.
Same children.
I asked:
“Why?”
Camille finally answered honestly.
“Because after Elena died, you didn’t need me anymore.”
I stared.
She had moved into the estate for six months after my wife died.
Helped with baths.
Meals.
Nightmares.
School.
Everything.
I was grateful.
Then I healed enough to function.
Staff stabilized.
Children adjusted.
Camille returned to her own home.
She experienced that as demotion.
“You were their aunt.”
“I was more than that.”
“To you?”
“To them.”
There.
Possession growing inside care.
She loved them.
I believed that.
She also started measuring love by how necessary she remained.
Dangerous combination.
Derek noticed.
Encouraged it.
Vincent weaponized it.
I looked at my sister.
“You locked Violet in a wall because she threatened the role you built around protecting her.”
She cried harder.
May you like
No answer.
There was none.
