Chapter 13 - Lucy Finally Read Victoria’s Letter
Lucy was eleven when she asked about the letter.
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Can I read it?”
Daniel brought it out.
He did not sit beside her unless she asked.
She read quietly.
The sentence about using fear made her stop.
Then she looked up.
“She knew I was scared?”
“Yes.”
“Before you did?”
“Yes.”
Daniel hated answering.
Lucy looked back at the page.
Then:
“Why didn’t she stop?”
“I don’t know everything in her head. She said control mattered more to her in those moments.”
Lucy frowned.
“That’s stupid.”
“Yes.”
Then she read the apology for the washbasin.
Her hand moved unconsciously toward her cheek.
No mark remained.
The memory did.
Then:
“Do I have to write back?”
“No.”
“Can I throw it away?”
“Yes.”
She thought.
Then folded it again.
“I’ll keep it.”
“Okay.”
No big reason.
Her choice.
Then Lucy asked:
“Is she still married to you in pictures?”
“What?”
“Our wedding pictures.”
“No. Pictures don’t determine marriage.”
“Do you still have them?”
“A few stored.”
“Why?”
“Because it happened.”
She accepted that.
Daniel had not erased Victoria from every photo.
History did not become safer by pretending she never:
existed.
Then Lucy asked about Hannah.
“Do you love Mom more than Victoria?”
Daniel almost gave a simple answer.
Stopped.
“That’s not really how love works.”
“That means yes.”
He laughed.
“Hannah was your mother and my first wife. Victoria was my second wife. They were different relationships.”
Lucy rolled her eyes.
Then:
“Would Mom have hated Victoria?”
“I don’t know.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Good.
Daniel refused to turn Hannah into a dead judge approving every later choice.
Then Lucy asked:
“Did Mom leave the house to me because she knew this would happen?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because it came from her family and she wanted it protected for you.”
“That’s boring.”
“Most good estate planning is.”
She laughed.
Then Daniel realized something important.
The lake house no longer represented conflict to Lucy.
At eleven, it was where she:
learned to kayak,
burned marshmallows,
had sleepovers,
lost her first tooth after biting a frozen candy bar,
and once accidentally flooded the downstairs bathroom.
More memories had accumulated.
The kitchen incident had become one chapter.
Not the whole property.
May you like
That was exactly what healing should do.
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