Chapter 7
The investigation widened.
Vanessa had done this before.
Eric’s attorney sent Nora old emails.
Vanessa had claimed Mason had behavioral issues.
She had staged photos of broken toys.
Recorded tantrums she provoked.
Used them to keep Eric away.
Then she met me.
A widower.
A grieving father.
A child with a trust.
A house paid off by life insurance.
A man desperate to believe love could return.
She studied us.
Then entered carefully.
Meals.
Kindness.
Soft voice.
She never pushed at first.
She simply made herself necessary.
After the wedding ceremony, she changed.
Small rules.
Lily could not snack too much.
Lily needed stricter bedtime.
Lily needed to stop talking about Anna.
I had argued sometimes.
Then Vanessa cried.
Said she was trying.
Said I did not trust her because she was not Anna.
That always silenced me.
Nora found a notebook in Vanessa’s bedroom.
It was worse than the videos.
Michael responds to guilt.
Lily fears abandonment.
Mason obeys threats about Eric.
My hands shook.
She had mapped our wounds.
Grace sat beside me.
“You were targeted.”
“I still let her in.”
“Yes,” Grace said. “And now you’re getting her out.”
May you like
I looked at Lily sleeping on the couch with a cracker still in her hand.
I whispered, “Not fast enough.”
