Chapter 10
Connor played the recording.
Diane’s sitting room.
Months earlier.
Sabrina’s voice:
“Connor keeps asking about Michael.”
Diane answered:
“Then make the memory unpleasant.”
“What if he comes back?”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
A pause.
“Elias made sure.”
Connor stopped the video.
Sabrina whispered:
“You told me he was dead.”
Diane sighed.
“I told you to live as if he were.”
Connor’s face collapsed.
I crouched beside him.
“Do you know where Michael is?” I asked.
Diane smiled.
“Ask nicely.”
Even now.
Information as food.
Everyone ate when she allowed it.
Sabrina stared at her mother.
“Tell my son.”
“Now you care?”
“Tell him!”
Diane laughed.
“Maybe if you had been a better wife, Michael wouldn’t have wanted out.”
Connor flinched.
Sabrina did too.
Mother looked pleased.
Cruelty restored her sense of control.
My captain entered.
“We found Elias Crane.”
Everyone went still.
“Where?”
“Old Whitfield hunting lodge.”
Diane’s face changed.
“Alone?”
“No.”
My captain looked at Connor.
“There’s a man with him matching Michael Ward’s description.”
Connor stopped breathing.
Sabrina whispered:
“No.”
I stared at Mother.
“You kept him alive?”
She crossed her arms.
“He was useful.”
“For six years?”
“He knew routes. Names. Habits.”
Connor began crying.
Diane frowned at him.
“For God’s sake, stop.”
I stood between them.
“He thought his father abandoned him.”
“Then he learned independence.”
“He was four.”
“And?”
That word again.
The simplest summary of Diane Whitfield.
And?
Pain.
Fear.
Hunger.
Children.
Everything became acceptable if it served control.
Sabrina looked at Connor.
“I didn’t know.”
He stepped away from her.
That hurt her.
Good.
Diane smiled.
“Don’t let Natalie make you ashamed.”
Sabrina looked at her mother.
“You taught me to starve my own son.”
“I taught you consequences.”
“You taught me to cut Grace’s hair.”
“I taught you not to tolerate disobedience.”
Sabrina stared.
Then whispered:
“Look what you made normal.”
Diane’s face hardened.
May you like
For the first time, Sabrina stopped using Mother as an excuse.
She was finally using her as evidence.
