Chapter 5 - Daniel confronts Victoria
Daniel requested a meeting with Victoria through lawyers present.
Not private.
Not shouting in driveway.
He asked:
“Why did you falsify the custody language?”
Victoria said:
“I summarized it.”
“You changed ‘neither parent’ into ‘mother.’”
“The school needed clarity.”
“You invented clarity.”
She looked at him.
“You have blocked every opportunity that would make Sophie independent.”
“I blocked boarding school because she told me she doesn’t want boarding school.”
“She’s nine.”
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t know what she needs.”
“Neither do you when you’re lying to get it.”
Then she turned to me.
“Are you going to sit there while he insults me?”
“Yes.”
That surprised her.
Then Daniel:
“Did you tell Sophie she had to compete with Noah?”
“I told her not to disappear inside your family.”
“My family?”
“Men decide everything around her.”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“You made her steal a toddler’s chair to teach feminism?”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“I was teaching her not to surrender space.”
“She surrendered her judgment to you.”
Silence.
Then I asked:
“Why Noah?”
She looked at me.
“What?”
“Why send him away?”
“He needs consistency.”
“He has it.”
“Margaret raises him.”
“No. Margaret helps me raise him.”
“You travel.”
“So?”
“So the lake house gives him stability.”
“Without me?”
“You would visit.”
“I live with my son.”
“You also have a life.”
There.
As if Noah occupied a category separate from life.
Then:
“And Sophie?”
“She needs distance from Daniel’s control.”
“Without you too?”
“Residential school creates neutrality.”
“No. It removes both parents.”
She said:
“Temporarily.”
May you like
That word had become her shield.
Everything cruel could be temporary.
