Chapter 8 - Marianne Was Crueler Than Grant Wanted to Admit
Grant had authorized the punishment.
Marianne escalated it.
That distinction mattered without absolving him.
Ava eventually described another rule.
If she kicked the shed door, Marianne added time.
If she screamed Grant’s name, more time.
If she screamed mine—
more again.
“Why Grandpa?” I asked.
Ava whispered:
“Marianne says you make Daddy weak.”
There it was.
Marianne saw my relationship with Ava as interference.
I visited often.
Ava ran to me.
I contradicted household rules I thought were too harsh.
I had even told Grant once that his daughter seemed afraid of Marianne.
He dismissed it.
After that, Marianne started using me as part of the punishment.
“Grandpa isn’t coming.”
“Grandpa can’t help you.”
“Grandpa thinks you’re a big girl.”
Grant later insisted he never approved those lines.
I believed him.
But he created the closed system in which Marianne could say them.
That was his responsibility.
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A parent cannot delegate cruelty and then claim innocence because he did not supervise every detail.
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