Chapter 3 - I Had Been Explaining Away The Signs For A Year
Looking back, the signs were everywhere.
Nora started checking her school bag three or four times before leaving.
I thought she was becoming organized.
She wasn’t.
She was making sure her rescue medication was inside.
She started asking me:
“Are you home tonight?”
I thought she missed me.
She was calculating whether Serena would be alone with her.
She once cried because I told her I had a business dinner.
I remember saying:
“You’re too old to be this dramatic.”
That sentence came from Serena.
I had absorbed it without realizing.
Another time, Nora’s teacher called because she had panicked during gym class after realizing her breathing device wasn’t in the nurse’s office.
Serena said:
“She probably forgot it herself.”
I believed her.
Nora insisted she had packed it.
I told her to be more responsible.
That memory became unbearable.
My daughter had told the truth.
I punished her with disappointment because the adult beside me sounded more confident.
That was Serena’s greatest advantage.
Not that Nora never spoke.
May you like
That adults often distrust frightened children when a calm adult supplies a cleaner explanation.
---
