Chapter 4 - LINDA'S DEFENSE
Claire confronted Linda with Grace present.
No screaming this time.
Linda read the letter.
Then said:
“That’s not the whole story.”
Claire almost laughed.
“It’s six pages.”
“Your father said different things privately.”
“Like what?”
“He worried you were too soft.”
“I was eight.”
“He worried about the company staying strong.”
“That’s not male.”
Linda crossed her arms.
“You think one letter erases years of marriage?”
Grace intervened.
“No one is saying that.”
Claire looked at her mother.
“Then what are you saying?”
Linda’s defense was not irrational.
Martin grew up in a family of men who ran trades.
He used phrases like:
shop men,
foremen,
Bennett boys.
He once told Linda:
“I wish I had a son to bring into the shop.”
Linda remembered it exactly.
Claire stared.
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
That mattered.
Linda had experienced years of fertility treatment.
Two miscarriages.
One stillbirth.
The stillborn baby was male.
His name would have been Thomas.
Claire had never known.
Linda’s eyes filled.
“Your father wanted that boy.”
Claire’s anger paused.
Not gone.
Changed.
Linda continued:
“When you were born, he loved you. I know that.”
“Then why did you tell me I was the wrong child?”
Linda looked away.
“Because after he died, the company became everything.”
May you like
That was not yet an answer.
But it was the beginning of one.
