Chapter 6 - THE ONE THING DAMIAN HAD NEVER TOLD HIS DAUGHTER
Emma began seeing a child therapist experienced in grief and family conflict.
The first weeks were difficult.
She asked Damian the same question repeatedly.
“Did Mommy leave because of you?”
He wanted to say no.
Completely.
Cleanly.
Instead, his therapist advised honesty appropriate to her age.
So one evening Damian sat beside Emma on her bed.
“Allison and I had an argument the night she died.”
Emma listened.
“We were both upset.”
“Did you make her leave?”
“No.”
“Did you want her to go?”
Damian swallowed.
“I said something angry.”
“What?”
That question hurt.
He had spent four years replaying the words.
Maybe we’d both be happier if you left for a while.
Allison took her keys.
Forty minutes later, a drunk driver crossed the center line.
Damian had never forgiven himself for the timing.
But guilt had allowed Celeste to manipulate him too.
Whenever Celeste hinted that Emma needed a “fresh start” away from Allison’s memory, Damian rarely argued strongly.
Some part of him believed he had forfeited the right.
He told Emma simply:
“I said something I wish I hadn’t. But I did not hurt Mommy. And I did not cause the crash.”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“Then why did Celeste say you made her disappear?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the only honest answer.
Emma looked at her stuffed rabbit.
“She said you don’t like when I remember Mommy.”
Damian’s face changed.
He remembered the photographs Celeste encouraged him to move from the living room.
The box of Allison’s Christmas decorations that disappeared into the attic.
The time Celeste told him Emma’s obsession with her mother was preventing their “new family” from becoming normal.
He had agreed to some of it.
Not because he wanted Emma to forget.
Because remembering hurt him.
That realization made him ashamed.
Celeste had not invented every weakness she exploited.
Damian had helped create the silence.
May you like
Now Emma no longer knew whether the silence meant grief or guilt.
That would not be repaired by exposing Celeste alone.
