Chapter 6
Victoria tried a different defense.
“I was protecting my daughter.”
That one was harder to dismiss because she believed it.
She told me about Sophie’s childhood after her father died. Birthdays where other children arrived with fathers. School events. Father-daughter dances. Questions Victoria could not answer without watching Sophie’s face change.
I understood every part of that pain.
Then she said:
“I promised she would never feel second again.”
I stared at her.
“To who?”
“What?”
“Who was making her second?”
Silence.
“Noah?”
She looked away.
There it was.
Sophie had never asked for competition.
Victoria created it because she could not tolerate the possibility that her daughter might enter my life without controlling where everyone else stood.
“You could have asked me to love Sophie.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“I shouldn’t have to ask.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You shouldn’t.”
Then my voice dropped.
“But you also didn’t have to remove my son to make space.”
She looked angry again.
“You don’t understand what it’s like watching your child always be the extra one.”
I thought of Noah at the children’s table.
No chair.
Dirty plates in his arms.
“You made my son the extra one.”
That silenced her.
Then Sophie’s voice came from behind us.
“I never asked you to.”
Victoria turned.
Sophie stood beside Margaret.
Her face was wet.
“Mom, I didn’t want his room.”
Victoria immediately reached toward her.
Sophie stepped back.
That movement changed the room.
Victoria stopped.
Sophie continued.
“I like Noah.”
Three words.
Simple.
May you like
Devastating.
All the hierarchy Victoria claimed to build for her daughter existed mostly in Victoria’s own fear.
