Corinne took the six-year-old girl’s sleeping pillow and threw it into a dog bed hidden beneath the end of the table.
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Chapter 6 / 17
Chapter 6
The dog bed was Corinne’s invention alone.
Celestine had never heard about it.
Neither had Oliver.
I asked Corinne why.
She said:
“Mabel threw a tantrum when I told her Oliver needed the room.”
Mabel had cried.
Different.
“She refused to pack.”
She was six.
“So you decided humiliation would make her cooperate.”
“I wanted her to understand the house doesn’t revolve around her.”
I stared.
“On her birthday.”
Corinne looked away.
Good.
Then she admitted something uglier.
She chose the dog bed because Mabel had said:
“Daddy will put everything back.”
Corinne wanted to prove Daddy would not always rescue her.
There.
Not succession.
Competition.
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My wife had begun resenting a child’s trust in me.
That was the line.
