Chapter 9
Victoria wrote letters from prison.
I kept them in a sealed envelope for my lawyer.
The children never saw them.
Elaine asked once if she could send birthday gifts.
I said no.
She said I was cruel.
I said, “Yes, to people who endanger my children.”
Then I hung up.
Boundaries felt less like walls now.
More like doors I controlled.
On Maya’s sixth birthday, she asked for a party in the living room.
The same living room.
I hesitated.
She noticed.
“I want happy in there,” she said.
So we filled it with balloons.
Ethan helped hang streamers.
Rachel baked cupcakes.
Maya wore a crown and a purple dress.
At one point, she stood in the exact spot where Victoria had raised her hand.
Then she spun in a circle.
“Look, Daddy. No scary.”
I cried in the kitchen where she could not see.
Ethan found me anyway.
“She’s okay,” he said.
I wiped my face.
“I know.”
He leaned against me.
“Are you?”
I looked at my son.
The boy who had tried to be a wall.
Now just a boy with frosting on his shirt.
“I’m getting there.”
May you like
He nodded.
“Me too.”
