Chapter 14
Leah almost resigned.
“I don’t trust myself.”
We were in the hotel garden.
Theo was chasing snowflakes badly.
“What does that mean?”
“I saw what Sabine was doing after the first night.”
“Yes.”
“I told myself I could protect him from inside.”
There.
Same logic Julian used.
Same logic everyone uses before complicity grows.
“I should have taken him and come to you.”
“Yes.”
She cried.
I continued.
“You also tried to shorten the nights.”
Her eyes lifted.
She had.
Sabine ordered Theo kept awake until dawn.
Leah secretly let him sleep twenty minutes at a time when Sabine left the room.
Small resistance.
Not enough.
Still something.
“I don’t know if that makes it better.”
“It makes it more accurate.”
Important.
We do not need to make people entirely good or bad to hold them accountable.
Leah stayed.
But I changed her position.
She reported directly to me or Rafe on child welfare decisions.
No fiancée.
No aunt.
No family elder could overrule her regarding Theo’s sleep, food, or basic care without explicit agreement.
Strange that such boundaries needed saying.
Families often assume love naturally creates wisdom.
It does not.
Clear roles help.
Theo loved Leah.
That mattered too.
I would not remove another safe adult because guilt made her uncomfortable.
She had work to do.
May you like
Staying and doing it better was harder than resigning.
Good.
