Chapter 7 - MARK'S PART
Mark wanted to blame Vanessa entirely.
Therapy would not let him.
He said:
“She manipulated me.”
The therapist answered:
“Yes.”
“She lied.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Some things you did not know.”
Mark waited.
“And some things?”
“You chose not to examine.”
Silence.
He remembered Sofia saying:
“She makes me stand outside.”
Mark had answered:
“For five minutes?”
Sofia said:
“Sometimes.”
He said:
“Then come in when she tells you.”
He remembered another night.
Sofia texted him from school:
Can I stay with Mom tonight?
Mark called Vanessa first.
Vanessa said:
“She is avoiding consequences.”
Mark replied to Sofia:
No. Stop splitting households.
He never asked what the consequence was.
Then Mark remembered the phrase he used often:
“We need to present a united front.”
It sounded healthy.
Sometimes it was.
But unity became more important than accuracy.
If Sofia contradicted Vanessa, Mark treated contradiction itself as disloyalty.
He thought he was protecting the marriage.
He was training Sofia to understand that telling him the truth could threaten the family structure.
Mark cried.
“I thought I was being consistent.”
The therapist answered:
“You were.”
May you like
Then:
“Consistency is not automatically justice.”
