Chapter 7 - Vivian Wanted Elsie Sent Away Before The Wedding
The answer appeared in an email exchange between Vivian and the director of a therapeutic boarding program in Vermont.
Marcus knew nothing about it.
Vivian had contacted the school using a private email address.
She described herself as:
Future stepmother and primary female caregiver.
She wrote that Elsie suffered from:
Prolonged grief fixation, emotional manipulation, severe dependency on father, escalating behavioral dysregulation.
Marcus read the paragraph twice.
Then a third time.
Vivian had asked about residential placement beginning in the fall.
One month after their wedding.
She wanted Elsie away.
Not forever.
Nine months of the year.
The school itself was legitimate.
That mattered.
It served children with real therapeutic needs.
The institution was not part of the wrongdoing.
Vivian was.
She was constructing a misleading picture to make a healthy grieving child appear appropriate for residential treatment.
The director had repeatedly requested formal psychological evaluation and parental consent.
Vivian replied:
Father is resistant because child manipulates him emotionally. I am gathering documentation.
That sentence made Marcus stand up so abruptly his chair tipped backward.
His attorney caught it.
Marcus walked to the window.
He could barely breathe.
Vivian had not simply wanted Elsie more independent.
She wanted her removed from the home.
May you like
And she had been manufacturing the justification herself.
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