Chapter 4 - The Pregnancy Had Already Changed Avice’s Place In The Family
The fake baby had not merely attracted sympathy.
It changed how people treated Avice.
Before Vanessa’s pregnancy announcement, Avice was Julian’s only child.
She spent weekends with Cesare.
Sat beside him at foundation lunches.
Appeared in family Christmas cards.
Had a small education trust established in her name.
Then Vanessa announced she was pregnant.
Everything shifted.
Diane began referring to the unborn baby as “the real future of the Hale family.”
At first Cesare corrected her.
Then the remarks became quieter.
More private.
Avice was suddenly too young for donor dinners.
Too restless for family photographs.
Too emotional around Vanessa.
Too much like Julian’s late first partner, Caroline.
Cesare heard pieces of it.
He did not understand the pattern.
Now he did.
Vanessa had not only invented a pregnancy.
She and Diane had used the imagined baby to push Avice outward.
Avice became the old child.
The inconvenient child.
The reminder of Julian’s life before Vanessa.
That was why Vanessa humiliated her.
The fake pregnancy needed emotional space.
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And Avice occupied too much of it.
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