Chapter 34 - the full case file showed nora she really had struggled
At seventeen, Nora requested the complete file.
Not only Marissa’s falsified documents.
Everything.
School records.
Therapy notes she was legally allowed to see.
Original teacher summaries.
Police timeline.
Briar Glen correspondence.
She read for days.
Then came downstairs holding an original school report.
“I was having problems.”
I knew what she meant.
Nightmares.
Distractibility.
Crying.
Separation anxiety.
“Yes.”
“But we always say Marissa made it up.”
“She made up conclusions.”
“And changed records.”
“Yes.”
“But some stuff was real.”
“Yes.”
Nora sat.
“Why didn’t you say that more?”
Because I had spent years afraid acknowledging any real struggle would validate Marissa.
I told her.
Nora stared.
“So you made me healthier in the story than I was.”
That hurt.
“Yes.”
Not deliberately.
Still yes.
She nodded.
“Marissa made me sicker.”
“You made me healthier.”
“And I was just me.”
There it was.
The final correction.
Nora had been grieving.
Struggling.
Observant.
Anxious.
Smart.
Sometimes wrong.
Sometimes frightened.
None of those traits needed exaggeration in either direction.
May you like
She was never the problem.
That did not mean she had never had problems.
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