Chapter 6
Sophie Price lived with Miles’s ex-wife in Connecticut.
According to Cora, Evelyn had arranged for her to spend more time at the Lockwood estate after the wedding.
Nothing wrong with that.
Family visits were normal.
The problem was the plans.
The east-wing renovation included two connected bedrooms.
One for Sophie.
One for Evelyn’s future child.
Not Hazel.
Hazel’s new room was farther down the service corridor.
Smaller.
Near the nanny suite.
I looked at the plans.
“You were moving my daughter away from me.”
Evelyn crossed her arms.
“She wakes up every night.”
“She is three.”
“She climbs into your bed.”
“Yes.”
“That has to stop.”
“Eventually.”
My voice stayed calm.
“Not because you want the space.”
Her face hardened.
“You don’t understand what marriage requires.”
I almost smiled.
“I was married twelve years.”
Silence.
“You understand what you require.”
That landed.
Miles stepped forward.
“Sophie needs stability too.”
I turned.
“So bring her a chair.”
“What?”
“Bring her a room.”
I tapped the plans.
“Build something without taking Hazel’s.”
That was the pattern.
Every solution required Hazel to lose.
Room.
Photographs.
Comfort objects.
Access to me.
Even the right to cry.
Evelyn called it blending.
It looked more like displacement.
Then I noticed another notation on the renovation plan.
LOCKWOOD FAMILY CHILDREN — PRIMARY: SOPHIE PRICE.
I stared.
Not Hazel.
Sophie.
An eight-year-old visitor had been designated primary family child inside my estate.
Miles finally looked frightened.
Good.
May you like
The plan had moved beyond cruelty.
It had become hierarchy.
