Chapter 12 - Lucy Asked If She Had Ruined My Marriage
The question came two weeks after Bianca moved out.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Is Bianca gone because I told?”
We were sitting on the beige sofa.
Murphy slept near the coffee table.
The dog bowl had been replaced.
Not because metal bowls were bad.
Because Lucy couldn’t look at that particular one.
“No.”
She looked confused.
“But if I didn’t tell, she’d still live here.”
Maybe.
I wasn’t going to lie.
“She might.”
“So I broke you up.”
“No.”
“How?”
“Bianca made choices that ended our marriage.”
“But I showed them.”
“You helped us see them.”
Lucy frowned.
“That’s the same.”
“It isn’t.”
I took her hand.
“If someone breaks a window and you tell me, did you break the window?”
“No.”
“Same idea.”
She considered that.
Then asked:
“Did Emma break it because she filmed?”
“No.”
“Did Marcus?”
I almost laughed despite everything.
“Marcus helped break plenty.”
That earned a tiny smile.
Then Lucy became serious again.
“Can I still miss Bianca sometimes?”
That surprised me.
But it shouldn’t have.
Children do not organize love around adult morality.
“Yes.”
“Even though she was mean?”
“Yes.”
Lucy leaned against me.
That evening I learned something important.
Protecting a child does not require teaching her to hate the person who hurt her.
May you like
It requires giving her enough safety to decide what she feels without being controlled by fear.
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