Chapter 7 - Celeste Could Not Understand Why I Asked Her To Leave
When I told Celeste to move out temporarily, she stared at me as if I had lost my mind.
“This is my house.”
“It is jointly owned.”
“I’m your wife.”
“I know.”
“You’re throwing your wife out because a housekeeper complained?”
“No.”
I placed the camera stills in front of her.
“I’m asking my wife to leave because she repeatedly intimidated a child and then shoved her into a mirror.”
Celeste looked at the images.
Her expression did not change.
“You’ve been investigating me.”
“Yes.”
“That is sick.”
I almost admired how easily she moved herself into the victim position.
“You threatened a seven-year-old with her mother’s employment.”
“I disciplined someone who had no boundaries.”
“Not your child.”
“She was under my roof.”
That sentence again.
Ownership.
“I think you need to stay somewhere else while we decide what happens next.”
Celeste laughed.
“We?”
“Yes.”
“There is no we if you do this.”
I looked at her for a long time.
Maybe she expected fear.
Instead I felt relief.
“That may be true.”
Her face changed slightly.
She had always assumed I would correct her behavior but preserve the marriage.
Because that was what I had always done.
Until June hit the mirror.
Celeste packed three suitcases.
Before leaving, she stood beneath the chandelier and said:
“One day you’ll realize employees will take everything you give them.”
I answered:
“Helen asked me for nothing.”
That bothered her.
Because Celeste understood people only through transaction.
A housekeeper who wanted dignity instead of money did not fit the story she had built.
She left that night.
The mansion became quieter immediately.
I wish I could say that made me feel good.
May you like
It didn’t.
It made me realize how much tension I had normalized.
