Chapter 9 - THE COST OF STAYING HOME
I reduced my travel schedule.
That meant losing a project-management opportunity in Boston.
My supervisor was direct.
“You’ve been asking for this promotion for two years.”
“I know.”
“And now you’re turning it down?”
“For now.”
It cost me nearly eighteen thousand dollars in projected annual compensation.
For the first time, I understood why I had let Diane and then Vanessa handle so much.
Delegating family life had been professionally convenient.
That didn’t make it harmless.
Meanwhile, the conflict spread through the family.
Vanessa told friends I was destroying the marriage because Mason “couldn’t accept discipline.”
Mom told relatives I was blaming her for Emily’s death.
Neither was true.
Lauren stopped letting Mom control the narrative.
She told our aunt exactly what had happened at dinner.
Then something unexpected happened.
Aunt Susan called me.
“Diane said something strange after Emily’s funeral.”
“What?”
“She said Vanessa would be good for you because she wanted children.”
I sat very still.
Susan continued.
“I thought she meant someday.”
“Did she mention Mason?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She said Mason would probably spend more time with her once you remarried because a new wife would need room to build a family.”
The plan predated my marriage.
Not necessarily Vanessa’s plan.
Diane’s.
That night I confronted Mom.
She finally stopped denying it.
“I thought giving Mason stability with me would make remarriage easier.”
“For who?”
“For everyone.”
“Not Mason.”
“He loves me.”
“That doesn’t mean he needed to be relocated.”
Mom began crying.
Then she said something revealing.
“You were supposed to have more children.”
Supposed to.
The whole future existed in her head.
My remarriage.
Another baby.
Mason partially transferred to Grandma.
Emily’s photographs gradually disappearing.
No one had formally agreed.
Yet everyone except me had been living under pieces of that expectation.
Then Lauren texted.
FOUND SOMETHING.
She had located an old cloud backup from Emily’s tablet.
A photograph showed several pages of handwritten notes.
May you like
The missing journal pages.
Emily had photographed them herself.
