Chapter 7 - Chase Had Been Repeating Tove’s Story for Months
Chase’s accusation beside the pool—
She’s always been good at faking it
—did not come from personal observation.
He barely spent time with Mireya.
The phrase came from Tove.
She had been telling her brother for months that Cullen’s daughter was manipulative.
That Margaret encouraged it.
That Cullen was “too traumatized by single fatherhood” to recognize what was happening.
Chase believed her.
Then reinforced her.
At dinners he joked:
“Here comes the emergency every time Dad talks to someone else.”
Tove laughed.
Cullen sometimes told him to stop.
But not forcefully enough.
That mattered.
Because children learn what the room permits.
So do cruel adults.
Every unchallenged joke made the next accusation easier.
By the wedding, Chase could watch a three-year-old struggling to breathe and interpret it through Tove’s story rather than what was directly in front of him.
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That was how deeply the lie had spread.
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