Chapter 24 - Samantha asks me the hardest question
Lily’s mother Samantha had watched everything from the outside.
One evening after custody exchange, she stayed.
“You need to hear something.”
“I’m tired of hearing things.”
“Too bad.”
Fair.
She sat.
“Why was Lily at the mansion so much?”
“Because my house was being repaired.”
“No.”
I stared.
She continued:
“Why were you comfortable with Richard and Marcus around her without questioning how much control they had over the house?”
“They never hurt Lily.”
“That’s not the question.”
I disliked where this was going.
Samantha said:
“You grew up thinking your father’s control was competence.”
There.
“You put Lily inside that system because it felt normal.”
“I was there.”
“Not always.”
“Marcus protected us for twelve years.”
“He protected your family according to your father’s definition.”
That hurt.
Because true.
Samantha continued:
“I’m not accusing you of causing Claire’s confinement.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking whether you would have noticed smaller things.”
I thought about staff reporting structures.
Private investigators.
Family monitoring.
Richard’s habit of knowing where everyone was.
I had joked about it.
“Dad knows before Google.”
Funny.
Until not.
“I don’t know.”
Samantha nodded.
“Then figure it out.”
We revised Lily’s security arrangements too.
No security chief with unrestricted access to every family member’s private information.
No tracking unless safety required.
No driver reporting private conversations.
No father receiving summaries of mother’s household.
Boundaries.
Even powerful families can have them.
May you like
Especially powerful families need them.
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