Chapter 16 - Sophie Is Angry at Daniel Too
Everyone expected Sophie to turn against Victoria.
She did not.
She became angry at Daniel.
Children distribute anger according to access.
Daniel was safe.
So he got plenty.
“You took me.”
“I followed a temporary order.”
“You wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“You always wanted more days.”
“Yes.”
“So you happy.”
He told me this later.
“What did you say?”
“That I was happy to have her and unhappy about why.”
Good.
Sophie shouted:
“You hate Mom.”
Daniel answered:
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“I am angry at her.”
“Same.”
“No.”
She threw a pillow.
He let it hit him.
Then:
“No throwing hard things.”
Apparently our families had developed material-specific discipline.
Sophie also resented me.
At one supervised family session she said:
“You made Mom cry.”
I answered:
“Yes.”
“You took ring.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I was angry.”
“Do you hate her?”
“I am very angry about what she did to Noah and you. I don’t need to hate her.”
Sophie stared.
“Mom says you want her gone.”
“From my home and engagement, yes.”
“From world?”
“No.”
That question mattered.
Children around powerful adults imagine banishment literally.
Then:
“Can Mom still be Mom?”
I looked at Daniel.
He nodded slightly.
“Yes.”
My answer.
“Nothing about me ending an engagement stops her from being your mother.”
Sophie cried.
That was probably the first moment she separated:
Raffaele rejecting Mom as wife
from:
everyone rejecting Mom as person.
Victoria had blurred those intentionally.
If I do not come first, we do not belong.
Sophie had absorbed it.
May you like
Our job was to untangle.
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