Chapter 18 - THE EMAIL TO HERSELF
One piece of evidence bothered me more than the notebook.
Fenella’s unsent email draft.
Subject:
AFTER.
Written before she locked me in.
It described what she expected after release.
Clotilde will cry.
Auberon will overreact.
Do not apologize immediately.
Let Clotilde eat and sleep.
Then remind Auberon that dramatic behavior is exactly why boundaries are needed.
She planned his reaction too.
Then:
If she claims abuse, ask why she stayed in shed when tools were available.
That sentence froze me.
Tools.
Yes.
There were tools.
No, I could not easily dismantle a locked outward-opening door with hand tools in darkness while pregnant and weak.
But Fenella had already prepared an argument:
If confinement were real, Clotilde would have escaped.
Then:
She always has choices and pretends she doesn’t.
There.
Fenella’s worldview.
Power removes someone’s practical choices.
Then blames them for not finding a heroic escape.
The prosecutor called it evidence of premeditated narrative management.
Defense called it angry journaling.
The judge would decide weight.
Then Auberon said:
“She used to say that to me.”
“What?”
“You always have choices.”
When he was fourteen.
Door removed.
Money withheld.
Dinner isolated.
Technically choices existed.
Obey.
Suffer.
Find another way.
A child learns to call coercion options.
Auberon had unlearned enough not to repeat it.
May you like
Not enough to recognize it coming toward his wife.
That became one of his deepest regrets.
