Chapter 16 - Claire Finally Told Me Why She Hated Me
Claire received a reduced sentence in exchange for cooperation.
Before sentencing, she asked to see me.
I agreed.
We sat across from each other separated by glass.
“I never hated you,” she said.
“You hit me with a trophy.”
“I hated who I became around you.”
I waited.
She continued.
“You were the person my mother compared me to.”
That surprised me.
“Catherine?”
“All the time.”
Rachel started a company.
Rachel bought a house.
Rachel takes care of her mother.
Rachel won another award.
I closed my eyes.
I had never known.
Claire laughed sadly.
“You'd call me excited about something good in your life, and I'd congratulate you. Then I'd hear my mother's voice telling me why I wasn't enough.”
“That wasn't my fault.”
“I know that now.”
“Did you know it then?”
“Some days.”
She looked down.
“Daniel noticed.”
Of course he did.
Predators rarely create every weakness.
They notice existing ones.
Then exploit them.
“He told me you looked down on me,” Claire said. “He repeated things you supposedly said.”
“I never said them.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because eventually he used the same trick on me. He told me things Eleanor supposedly said. Then I asked her.”
Claire wiped her eyes.
“I realized he had been feeding everyone different versions of everyone else.”
I thought about the months before the attack.
Small arguments.
Misunderstandings.
Friends withdrawing.
My brother becoming distant.
Daniel had isolated people by making them distrust one another.
“You still chose to hit me,” I said.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No manipulation defense.
No request for absolution.
“I did that,” Claire said. “And whatever happens to me because of it is mine.”
That mattered.
Not enough to restore seventeen years.
But enough for me to stop carrying the question of whether she understood.
Before leaving, I touched the glass.
Not as forgiveness.
As goodbye.
Claire raised her hand to the other side.
May you like
For one second, our palms aligned through the barrier.
Then I walked away.
