Chapter 3
I thought I had misheard.
“What?”
Edmund nodded.
Vanessa wanted the girls to call her Mom.
Not privately as affection developed.
As a rule.
At first she corrected them gently.
“Mommy Vanessa.”
Then dropped Vanessa.
Then punished Claire’s name.
If Harper asked about Claire, dessert disappeared.
If Willa cried for her mother at night, breakfast became plain toast.
If Maisie refused to kiss Vanessa goodnight, no warm milk.
If June said:
“Mommy Claire,”
Vanessa answered:
“Mommy Claire left.”
Simple repetition.
Then Grant added structure.
He called it helping the girls adjust.
They were supposed to repeat three sentences before meals.
Claire left because she was tired.
Vanessa stayed because she loved them.
Daddy works because little girls must learn gratitude.
I did not move.
Edmund continued because stopping frightened him more.
At first he thought the words were ugly but temporary.
Then the girls resisted.
Harper strongest.
She would say:
“Mommy Claire loves me.”
So Vanessa made food part of the argument.
Not full starvation immediately.
Smaller portions.
Missed treats.
Then meals delayed.
The less the girls surrendered, the harsher it became.
Grant turned it into a contest.
Four sisters at one table.
If all four said the words, everyone ate.
If one refused, everyone lost dessert.
Then dinner.
Then breakfast.
Collective punishment.
Sisters policing sisters.
Except they didn’t.
They protected each other.
That made Vanessa angrier.
One night Maisie repeated the required sentence.
Harper told her:
“It okay. You hungry.”
My eyes closed.
Three-year-olds showing more mercy than adults.
Then Edmund said:
“Christmas was supposed to end it.”
I opened my eyes.
“What does that mean?”
He stared at the ballroom.
Tonight’s party.
Forty guests.
Senior people.
Family friends.
Vanessa had planned a Christmas presentation after dinner.
The four girls would enter wearing matching new dresses.
They would stand beside her.
And say in front of everyone that Vanessa was their mother now.
Then she would announce our engagement—no, Vanessa is current partner, not fiancée. She intended to announce that I had asked her to formally become part of the family? But Ethan had not. Better she planned to announce that I had given her permanent maternal authority while overseas. Hmm.
Edmund corrected:
“She planned to tell everyone you asked her to raise them as her own.”
I had not.
Then the girls would receive presents.
Food.
Applause.
A new story made public.
May you like
My daughters had been starved toward a performance.
And I had returned early carrying Christmas gifts into the rehearsal.
