Chapter 15 - STELLAN’S MOTHER
Stellan visited Lucinda after sentencing.
I did not.
Rosalie did not.
He told me later.
She looked older.
No expensive garden dress.
No pearls.
He sat across from her.
First question:
“Why did you hit Elowen?”
Lucinda said:
“I lost control.”
“Why?”
“She told me Rosalie was hers.”
Stellan stared.
“She is.”
Lucinda closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“Did you know then?”
“Yes.”
There.
Not delusion.
Entitlement.
“Why say the baby came second?”
Lucinda looked down.
“Because Maribel had been waiting to become a mother longer than Elowen had been pregnant.”
Stellan’s face changed.
“That is insane.”
“Yes.”
At least she knew now.
“You thought waiting created priority?”
“I thought suffering did.”
There.
That was the emotional engine.
Maribel suffered infertility.
Lucinda decided another woman’s motherhood could settle the debt.
As though babies were compensation.
Stellan asked:
“Did you love Rosalie?”
“Yes.”
“Then why turn her into a deadline?”
Lucinda cried.
“I thought keeping the stewardship in the family protected all of you.”
“No.”
“I know.”
“No. Dad told you.”
Silence.
Important.
She had known law.
Rejected outcome.
Then:
“Did you love Elowen?”
Lucinda took too long.
“I respected her.”
“Not the same.”
“No.”
“Did you think she mattered less than Maribel?”
“At that moment, yes.”
That hurt.
Stellan ended the visit after twenty-seven minutes.
No hug.
He continued writing later.
No pressure on me.
That mattered.
One day he asked:
“Do you think I’m betraying you by still loving her?”
“No.”
He looked relieved.
“I would think you were betraying me if you used loving her to erase what she did.”
He nodded.
Good.
Family ties can survive without restoring authority.
Then Rosalie started saying “Da.”
Stellan spent three weeks insisting it meant Dad.
It meant everything.
Door.
Dog.
Lamp.
May you like
I let him have it.
Healing requires small delusions too.
