Chapter 7 - Maisie Was the One Thing Camille Couldn’t Replace
Camille denied resenting Maisie.
Grant wanted to believe her.
Then he began remembering moments he had interpreted differently.
Camille was affectionate when Maisie was quiet.
She loved dressing her.
Photographing her.
Planning the nursery.
Selecting clothes.
Choosing flowers.
But the baby’s crying irritated her far beyond ordinary exhaustion.
Especially when Ruth said:
“She cries exactly like Olivia did as a baby, according to Hannah.”
Or when Grant said:
“That expression is her mother.”
Camille’s face would tighten.
Briefly.
Then smile.
Once Grant called Maisie:
“Olivia’s little echo.”
Camille left the room.
He thought she was giving father and daughter privacy.
Now he remembered she did not return for hours.
Ruth remembered something else.
Camille repeatedly asked her to stop comparing Maisie to Olivia.
At first the request seemed healthy.
“Let her become herself.”
Reasonable.
Then it escalated.
No stories about Olivia during feeding.
No using Olivia’s old rocking blanket.
No playing the lullaby Olivia loved.
Ruth resisted.
Camille called it unhealthy fixation.
Grant sided with Camille twice.
That realization hurt.
He had participated.
Not deliberately.
But he helped remove pieces of Maisie’s mother from the child’s environment because Camille framed remembrance as emotional harm.
Hannah said quietly:
“She wasn’t trying to become Olivia.”
Grant looked at her.
“What?”
“She wanted to prove Olivia was replaceable.”
That was different.
More disturbing.
Camille did not imitate every part of Olivia because she wanted to become the same person.
She wanted the world to continue without Olivia so completely that eventually Olivia’s absence stopped mattering.
Grant had interpreted that forward motion as healing.
Camille interpreted it as victory.
Maisie ruined the fantasy.
The baby grew more like Olivia every month.
Her light-brown hair.
Her mouth.
Her expressions.
Her existence guaranteed that Olivia remained part of the household.
Camille could marry Grant.
Rearrange rooms.
Change routines.
Wear his ring.
May you like
But she could not change who Maisie’s mother was.
And that was the one thing she could not tolerate.
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