Chapter 12 - Avice Thought She Had Ruined The Family
The question came a week after the gala.
Avice was sitting on Cesare’s sofa drawing fish.
“Grandpa?”
“Yes?”
“Is everyone mad because I said her belly was a pillow?”
Cesare put down his coffee.
“No.”
“But before I said it, everybody was smiling.”
“That doesn’t mean everything was good.”
Avice frowned.
“Then I broke the party.”
“No.”
“I told.”
“Yes.”
“And then everything broke.”
Cesare moved closer.
“If a wall is already cracked and you point at it, did you crack the wall?”
She thought.
“No.”
“Same thing.”
Avice looked down at her drawing.
“Is Vanessa mad at me?”
“Probably.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
That answer came without hesitation.
Then Avice asked:
“Was there really no baby?”
Cesare softened.
“No.”
She became quiet.
“I was gonna give it my stuffed whale.”
That was the part that broke him.
Avice had been preparing to love a sibling who never existed.
Vanessa’s lie had not only manipulated adults.
It had created a relationship inside a child’s heart—
then erased it.
Cesare held his granddaughter while she cried for someone who had never been real.
Grief does not require a real person.
May you like
Sometimes it only requires a real expectation.
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