Chapter 2 - Vivian Was Supposed To Become Elsie’s Stepmother
Vivian Cross was not a stranger.
She was Marcus’s fiancée.
They had been engaged for seven months.
Their wedding was five months away.
Vivian had moved into the house shortly after the engagement.
Marcus thought he was creating stability for Elsie.
Her biological mother, Caroline, had died four years earlier after complications from an undiagnosed heart condition.
Elsie had been four.
Old enough to remember.
Too young to understand.
For years afterward, Marcus organized his entire life around his daughter.
Then he met Vivian.
She was polished, intelligent, composed.
She worked in luxury real estate and understood how to make people feel as though every room became more orderly when she entered it.
In public, she was excellent with Elsie.
Patient.
Interested.
Never pushed herself into the role of mother.
At first.
Marcus loved that.
He told friends:
“She understands Elsie already has a mom.”
Vivian even repeated it.
“I’m not replacing Caroline.”
That sentence gained Marcus’s trust.
Then she moved in.
Small things changed.
Elsie was told she was too old to sleep with the hall light on.
Too old to bring her stuffed rabbit downstairs.
Too old to cry before school.
Too old to ask Marcus to sit beside her until she fell asleep.
Marcus noticed some of it.
He interpreted it as ordinary adjustment.
Vivian was firmer than he was.
Maybe that was healthy.
Elsie had been raised gently after losing her mother.
Maybe Marcus had overcompensated.
That was how he explained it.
Then came the phrase Vivian used increasingly often:
“She needs resilience.”
Marcus heard maturity.
Elsie heard:
Stop feeling things.
May you like
The microchip would eventually show just how far Vivian had taken that philosophy.
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