Chapter 7 - EMMA FINALLY TOLD ME EVERYTHING SHE COULDA child therapist helped us speak with Emma without putting words in her mouth.
I wanted answers.
The therapist wanted safety.
She was right.
Emma communicated through dolls.
She placed a small child doll beneath a toy table.
A “grandma” doll took the plate away.
A “mommy” doll said:
“Don’t say kiss.”
My hands tightened.
Then Emma made the uncle doll kiss the mommy doll.
She looked at me.
“Daddy gets sad.”
I fought tears.
“Daddy is sad about what they did.”
She touched the child doll.
“Not Emma?”
“No.”
“Daddy not mad Emma?”
“Never.”
Her shoulders visibly relaxed.
That destroyed me.
For weeks, Claire and Patricia had taught her that telling me the truth would hurt me.
So she carried their secret to protect me.
A three-year-old protecting her father from adult betrayal.
I should have been protecting her.
Then Emma said:
“Grandma says little girls lose houses.”
I froze.
“What?”
The therapist gently asked:
“What does that mean?”
Emma shrugged.
“Mommy say if Daddy knows, Mommy goes away.”
That was the other weapon.
Claire had told her that revealing the truth would make her mother disappear.
No wonder she stayed silent.
Children do not understand divorce.
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They understand absence.
Claire had turned abandonment fear into a gag.
