Chapter 10 - What Sabine Meant
“She was never supposed to come back.”
That sentence became the phrase everyone remembered.
People interpreted it as:
Sabine wanted Marianne dead.
There was no evidence of that.
Sabine had nothing to do with the accident.
She did not know Marianne survived until years later.
She never threatened Marianne physically.
She never paid anyone to confine her.
The sentence meant something uglier in a quieter way.
Marianne was never supposed to return before Sabine completed the wedding.
Sabine believed marriage would create permanence.
If she became my wife first, then Marianne’s return would be a legal problem, not an immediate collapse of her future.
That logic was flawed.
But fear rarely hires competent lawyers.
Sabine wanted to cross one line before the truth arrived.
She told herself:
After the wedding, I’ll tell him.
After the honeymoon.
After we speak to attorneys.
After Melusine settles.
There is always another after.
Then Melusine wore Marianne’s dress.
Sabine became increasingly agitated.
A guest said:
“Marianne would have loved seeing her in that.”
Another said:
“She looks like her mother.”
Sabine heard comparison everywhere.
She found Melusine near the cake table.
According to Melusine:
Sabine said:
“You need to stop pretending she’s coming back.”
Melusine answered:
“Mommy is still my Mommy.”
Then Sabine tore the dress.
Not planned.
Not calculated.
An eruption.
The child became the place where Sabine discharged fear she had created herself.
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That was the crime we could prove.
The larger deception belonged mostly to civil law and moral responsibility.
