Chapter 13 - Nora’s Parents
Nora’s parents were alive.
Margaret and Stephen Bell.
They lived in western Massachusetts.
I told them after police interview.
Not before.
Margaret went silent.
Then:
“She warned you.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t listen.”
“No.”
That hurt.
Deserved.
Stephen said:
“Margaret.”
“No.”
Then to me:
“She called us about Celeste before she died.”
I stared.
“What did you say?”
“We told her to focus on treatment.”
There.
Not just me.
Everyone minimized.
Margaret cried.
“She sounded paranoid.”
Cancer.
Pain medication.
Fear.
Impending death.
We filtered every concern through illness.
Then:
“She stopped telling us.”
Nora had not been surrounded by villains.
She had been surrounded by people exhausted enough to prefer reassurance.
That was more ordinary.
And harder to forgive.
Margaret came to see Ivy.
No custody grab.
No:
We should have raised her.
Just grandmother.
Ivy told her:
“Celeste put me suitcase.”
Margaret cried.
Ivy looked alarmed.
“You sad?”
“Yes.”
“Not my fault.”
That sentence.
A four-year-old reassuring an adult.
Margaret corrected immediately.
“No, sweetheart. None of it was your fault.”
Good.
May you like
We all needed to stop making Ivy manage our feelings.
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