Chapter 8
Elena refused to let me turn Camille into a monster.
That surprised me.
“She loved Mira sometimes.”
I looked at my daughter.
“Sometimes?”
“She did.”
Elena sat by the window with Mira sleeping against her shoulder.
“She sang to her. She brought blankets. She stayed with me when I had fever after delivery.”
Conflicting truth.
Harder.
Good.
“Then why?”
Elena looked exhausted.
“Because love and control got mixed together.”
That sounded right.
Camille probably did love Mira.
But love does not become harmless simply because it feels sincere.
Some people love by holding tighter until nobody else can breathe.
Elena continued.
“She kept telling me I should be grateful.”
“For what?”
“For sleeping. For showering. For eating.”
My jaw tightened.
Basic recovery turned into debt.
Camille would help with Mira, then remind Elena how helpless she had been.
Every favor became evidence.
“You couldn’t do this without me.”
Eventually, maybe Elena started believing it.
“That’s why I stopped asking for help,” she said.
I looked at her.
“What?”
“I thought every time I asked, she was collecting it.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Help should make people safer.
Camille made help expensive.
Then Elena admitted her own fear.
“I thought you’d believe her.”
I did not answer quickly.
Because she had reason.
I had dismissed early warnings.
Trusted my wife’s calm voice over my daughter’s exhaustion.
“I might have.”
Elena looked at me.
No defense.
Good.
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded.
Not forgiveness.
Just acknowledgment.
Then she whispered:
“The refrigerator wasn’t the first time Mira disappeared.”
My chest went cold.
Not physically gone for long.
But twice, Elena woke and found the bassinet empty.
Camille had taken Mira to the east garden without telling anyone.
Another time to the breakfast terrace.
Minutes.
Safe.
Still terrifying to a new mother.
Each time Camille laughed at Elena’s panic.
“See? You need rest.”
The same experiment.
Smaller versions.
May you like
Tonight was escalation.
Camille had been studying exactly how much fear it took to make Elena look irrational.
