Chapter 14 - Victoria’s Motherhood
Daniel resisted turning Victoria into a monster.
That surprised me.
“She loves Sophie.”
“She used her.”
“Yes.”
“Both can be true.”
I looked at him.
“You’re defending her?”
“I’m defending Sophie from being told her mother never loved her.”
There.
Good father.
Daniel described their marriage.
Victoria struggled after Sophie’s birth.
Not severe postpartum depression.
More like identity collapse.
She had worked in luxury brand strategy.
Traveled.
Managed large campaigns.
Then became the parent whose calendar bent more because Daniel’s law practice was rigid.
They fought.
Daniel admitted:
“I let her become default parent while still thinking of myself as equal.”
Important.
By the time Sophie was four, Victoria resented:
school forms.
pediatrician.
dance pickup.
birthday gifts.
Daniel saying:
“Just tell me what she needs.”
That phrase.
Invisible labor.
Their marriage deteriorated partly around it.
After divorce Daniel changed.
Took more custody.
Moved his schedule.
Victoria remained suspicious that motherhood would always consume her.
Then she dated me.
A widower with a toddler.
Margaret handling much childcare.
At first Victoria loved that.
Then wedding approached.
She imagined becoming default mother again.
Not only to Sophie.
To Noah.
She panicked.
Did she say this?
Eventually.
In an evaluation she admitted:
“I did not want to marry a man and become manager of another child’s life.”
That is not evil.
She should not have.
I had never asked her to replace Margaret or Alessia.
But she also did not want Noah’s needs setting household rhythm.
So she imagined:
Margaret and Noah at lake house.
Daniel and Sophie together.
She would no longer be default mother to anyone full-time.
Then why perform the chair test?
Because she also feared that if I refused to prioritize Sophie once, it proved she herself would never outrank Noah.
Contradiction.
She did not want the children present.
She also wanted proof her side could beat mine.
Control often contains contradictory needs.
That did not make her incomprehensible.
May you like
It made her human enough to be dangerous without being a cartoon.
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