Chapter 7 - CLAIRE FINALLY TOLD ME WHY SHE HATED EMILYClaire requested a supervised conversation through our attorneys.
I agreed.
Not because I wanted reconciliation.
Because I needed answers.
She sat across from me.
“I never hated Sophie.”
I said nothing.
“I know you don’t believe me.”
“I believe behavior.”
She looked down.
“I wanted her to love me.”
“Then why hurt her?”
“Because every time she said Emily, I felt rejected.”
“She was six.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the number.”
Claire started crying.
“She had this whole world with you that I could never enter.”
“What world?”
“Emily.”
I stared.
“Every holiday had a story.”
“Because Sophie asked.”
“Every recipe.”
“Emily cooked.”
“Every photograph.”
“She existed.”
Claire flinched.
I continued:
“Your problem wasn’t that Emily was present.”
“What was it?”
“You needed her absent.”
Claire covered her face.
Then admitted something I had never known.
Before marrying me, she had struggled with infertility.
Two failed IVF cycles during her first marriage.
That marriage ended.
She had desperately wanted a child.
When she met me, Sophie became part of the future she imagined.
Not as Sophie.
As a daughter-shaped vacancy.
She assumed enough love would eventually make Sophie call her Mom.
When it didn’t happen, Claire interpreted grief as rejection.
Then Victor introduced financial ambition.
The trust transformed insecurity into motive.
None of that excused her.
But it made the progression clear.
She wanted the title.
Then control.
Then access.
Eventually, silence.
Claire whispered:
“I thought if Emily disappeared from the house, Sophie would need me.”
I stared at her.
“That is not how love works.”
“I know.”
“Now.”
May you like
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
