Chapter 13
Maribel requested mediation eighteen months later.
Elowen refused.
Stellan agreed to meet his sister once.
Not alone.
A mediator attended.
No Lucinda.
No Ivy.
Maribel looked different without Lucinda beside her.
Less polished.
More tired.
She began:
“I never believed a fake signature made me Ivy’s mother.”
Stellan stared.
“That’s your opening?”
“I need you to understand.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You need to understand.”
Maribel looked down.
Stellan continued.
“You knew Elowen never agreed.”
“Yes.”
“You completed a home study anyway.”
“Yes.”
“You let Mom create an email account pretending to be Elowen.”
Maribel’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“You let people describe my wife as unstable.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Maribel whispered:
“Because I kept thinking she would change her mind.”
“Why would she?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
Silence.
“You thought she should.”
Maribel started crying.
“Yes.”
There it was.
Not legal confusion.
Entitlement.
Stellan asked:
“Because you lost pregnancies?”
Maribel flinched.
“Because I lost everything.”
“No.”
His voice stayed calm.
“You lost things I cannot imagine losing.”
He paused.
“That does not make Elowen’s child one of the things taken from you.”
Maribel covered her face.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then she said:
“Mom kept saying it was unfair.”
“Mom says whatever makes control sound moral.”
“She said Elowen didn’t understand what she had.”
“Did you?”
Maribel looked at him.
“You had a healthy daughter in front of you.”
Stellan continued.
“And instead of being her aunt, you spent seven weeks trying to become evidence that she already belonged with you.”
Maribel whispered:
“I loved her.”
“I believe you.”
She looked surprised.
Stellan continued.
“That is the part you should be most ashamed of.”
Her face collapsed.
“You loved her and still helped build a lie around her mother.”
Then Maribel asked:
“Will I ever see Ivy again?”
Stellan did not answer for Elowen.
He also did not offer hope to make the meeting easier.
“Not while she’s young enough for us to decide without her understanding.”
Maribel nodded slowly.
“What about when she’s older?”
“That will depend on who you are by then.”
Not a promise.
Not a threat.
A boundary.
Lucinda requested her own meeting.
Stellan declined permanently.
He wrote one letter instead.
I love you because you are my mother. I will not have a relationship with you because loving someone does not require giving them access. Do not contact Elowen or Ivy. Communicate with me only through counsel regarding legal or financial matters.
Lucinda sent six responses.
May you like
Stellan read none.
That relationship was resolved.
