Chapter 13
Linda eventually confessed what she feared most.
Not me.
Emily leaving.
“If she leaves Ryan, everyone will know.”
I stared.
“Know what?”
“That he failed.”
There it was.
The entire cruelty condensed into reputation.
Her son could bruise a pregnant woman.
That could be hidden.
But separation?
Public failure.
Unacceptable.
I almost laughed at the madness.
“So you covered her arms.”
“Yes.”
She realized too late that she had admitted it.
Emily closed her eyes.
I continued.
“You restricted food.”
“I monitored it.”
“You took her phone.”
“She was emotional.”
“You built a nursery without her.”
Linda’s jaw tightened.
“She would’ve come around.”
I stared.
“To what?”
Silence.
“To accepting that your family knew better than she did what happened to her own body and child?”
For the first time, Linda looked old.
Not powerful.
Just old.
May you like
She had spent decades calling control wisdom.
And suddenly nobody in the room agreed.
