Chapter 7 - GEMMA ASKED THE QUESTION HE FEARED
Gemma reacted badly.
“You’re making her leave.”
“No.”
“You believed Sabina!”
“Yes.”
“You ruined everything!”
“Gemma.”
“No!”
She ran upstairs.
Chadworth did not follow immediately.
His old instinct would have been to fix.
Explain.
Control the emotional outcome.
Instead, he waited ten minutes.
Then knocked.
“Go away.”
“I can.”
Silence.
Then:
“But I’d like to come in.”
Another silence.
“Fine.”
He entered.
Gemma sat against the headboard clutching the notebook.
He sat on the floor.
Not beside her.
“Rosamund chose to leave her job.”
“Because of you.”
“Yes.”
Gemma stared.
He did not soften it.
She whispered:
“Why did you believe Sabina?”
There it was.
The question.
“I trusted her.”
“You trust Rosie.”
“I thought I did.”
Gemma’s eyes filled.
“Then why was Sabina easier?”
Chadworth looked at his daughter.
“What?”
“She said Rosie stole things and you believed maybe.”
“Yes.”
“But when Rosie said Sabina made Lorelai sad, you said Sabina was adjusting.”
He stopped breathing.
Children see hypocrisy with terrifying clarity.
Gemma continued:
“Why did Sabina get believed first?”
Chadworth could have blamed evidence.
Timing.
Relationship.
Anything.
Instead:
“Because Sabina was going to be my wife, and I gave her words more weight than Rosamund’s.”
“Because she’s rich?”
Chadworth flinched.
Maybe.
Not consciously.
Still maybe.
“Partly because I saw her as my equal.”
Gemma wiped her face.
“And Rosie isn’t?”
There it was.
His entire class system compressed into an eight-year-old’s question.
He said:
“I treated her like she wasn’t.”
Gemma nodded.
Then:
“That was mean.”
“Yes.”
“And dumb.”
“Yes.”
“And Sabina sucks.”
Chadworth almost laughed.
“We’re not using that word.”
“She does.”
He gave up.
“Perhaps privately.”
Gemma smiled through tears.
Small.
Progress.
---
Then she asked:
“Do you love us more than work?”
He froze.
“Of course.”
“How do we know?”
That question haunted him for months.
Because love declared is not always love experienced.
He had attended birthdays.
Bought gifts.
Paid for excellent schools.
Built a playhouse no child needed.
Yet Lorelai believed “Daddy is busy because adults have real problems.”
Where had she learned that?
Not only Sabina.
Sabina had weaponized something already available.
His absence.
Chadworth looked at Gemma.
“I need to show you better.”
She nodded.
That was all she gave him.
May you like
Fair.
---
