Chapter 10
Teresa found the missing piece in an ordinary staff calendar.
Every month, Margaret posted household pickup schedules in the pantry.
Teresa compared those schedules with Ainsley’s behavior logs.
One detail kept repeating.
On the dates when Eira had her worst recorded reactions, Ainsley had personally changed the child’s routine.
A music box disappeared just before bedtime.
Sofia’s scarf disappeared before preschool.
The photograph vanished before a therapy appointment.
The ceramic bird disappeared on Sofia’s birthday.
Each removal happened shortly before a moment when another adult would witness Eira’s distress.
That was clue one.
Clue two came from Chelsea.
Ainsley had repeatedly asked wedding staff to note whether Eira cried when Sofia was mentioned.
Not because a therapist requested it.
Because Ainsley wanted independent observers.
Clue three came from the renovation file.
Nolan had written to the architect:
NEED CHILD TRANSITION ISSUE RESOLVED BEFORE FINAL EAST-WING APPROVAL.
Rebecca read the sentence slowly.
They finally understood the plan.
Ainsley and Nolan had not simply decided Sofia’s belongings were unhealthy for Eira.
They needed Galen to believe it.
The east-wing renovation required Galen to approve removing Sofia’s rooms, relocating Eira, and redesigning the memorial garden.
Galen had resisted every time the changes were described as aesthetic.
So Ainsley changed the argument.
It was no longer about what she wanted.
It was supposedly about what Eira needed.
The child’s distress became evidence.
And when Eira did not naturally provide enough of it, Ainsley repeatedly removed things she loved, recorded the reaction, and presented the reaction as proof that Sofia’s memory was the problem.
Nolan’s construction company had already committed money because both siblings believed the emotional case would eventually force Galen’s approval.
The ballroom incident now looked different too.
The sash.
The locket.
The ultimatum.
It had not been one sudden explosion of jealousy.
Ainsley had finally attempted in public what she had been doing privately for months.
Erase Sofia.
Make Eira react.
Then force Galen to choose.
Rebecca looked at him.
“You know what this means.”
Galen nodded.
Ainsley had manipulated his daughter.
May you like
But she had used his absence to do it.
And now Galen had to decide whether exposing her publicly was worth making Eira’s grief part of another battle.
