Chapter 5 - “Seraphine says parties are adult work”
A month before the engagement party, Liora told me:
“I don’t like parties when Seraphine works.”
I answered:
“Then stay with Maya.”
Maya was her nanny.
I thought the problem was boredom.
Another time:
“Seraphine says I have to stay upstairs.”
I said:
“She probably means during meetings.”
Reasonable.
Then:
“She gets mad when I hear stuff.”
I was reading emails.
I said:
“Then give adults privacy.”
That sentence sat inside me like glass after the truth came out.
I had not authorized confinement.
I had not known.
But Liora had handed me pieces.
I interpreted them through trust.
Seraphine is responsible.
Seraphine is careful.
Seraphine loves her.
Therefore every ambiguous sentence must have an innocent explanation.
Parents cannot interrogate every normal complaint.
That would be unhealthy.
But there is a difference between interrogation and curiosity.
I had not asked enough.
“What stuff?”
“How does she make you stay?”
“Does the door lock?”
Three questions.
I asked none.
My guilt wanted to turn that into:
I caused it.
Wrong.
Seraphine chose.
My responsibility was smaller.
Still real.
May you like
I had stopped being curious because I wanted my new family arrangement to work.
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