Chapter 13 - Reese Had to Decide Whether Saving Maisie Had Cost Her Too Much
Reese stayed with Camille through winter.
But the incident changed her too.
She became hyperaware of stroller brakes.
Door latches.
Crib rails.
Every ordinary safety check became something she performed twice.
Camille noticed.
One afternoon, Reese checked the nursery window lock three times.
“You already did that.”
“I know.”
Reese stopped.
Then she sat in the rocker.
“I think I need to leave.”
Camille’s first reaction was fear.
She hated that.
Reese saw it.
“I’m not leaving tomorrow.”
“Is this because of Graham?”
“No.”
“Judith?”
“Not exactly.”
Reese looked toward sleeping Maisie.
“I love her. That’s part of the problem.”
After the stroller incident, Reese had begun feeling personally responsible for preventing every possible danger.
That was impossible.
She had started waking at night wondering what might happen on days she was not working.
“I don’t think that’s healthy for me.”
Camille swallowed.
“What do you want to do?”
Reese had applied to a pediatric occupational-therapy graduate program the previous year and deferred after taking the nanny position.
She wanted to enroll.
Camille felt proud of her.
And abandoned.
Both emotions were real.
Months earlier, Camille might have tried to persuade her to stay.
Instead she asked, “When would you start?”
“August.”
They made a transition plan.
Reese would reduce to three days a week in June.
Camille would interview new caregivers.
Graham would participate in those interviews only if Camille felt comfortable, but neither Judith nor any other relative would control the decision.
The process became unexpectedly important.
Camille realized she no longer wanted to replace Reese with another person who would become indispensable.
She wanted a network.
Beth.
A trusted daycare program.
A part-time nanny.
Graham during his parenting time.
Her own flexible schedule.
No single gatekeeper.
No person with enough control to make the family collapse if they left.
When Graham heard Reese was leaving, he looked genuinely sad.
“She’s good with Maisie.”
Camille studied him.
Six months earlier, he had tried to make her look dangerous.
Now he could acknowledge the truth.
May you like
Reese had always been good with Maisie.
The question was whether Graham had changed enough to live with truths that did not protect him.
