Chapter 16 - CHLOE GETS ANGRYChloe stopped drinking tea.
All tea.
Hot chocolate too.
If I handed her a cup already prepared, she refused it.
“I want to see.”
“See what?”
“You make it.”
At first I accommodated everything.
Then her therapist helped us.
We made drinks together.
She poured water.
I added cocoa.
She stirred.
No dramatic reassurances.
Just visibility.
One night Chloe asked:
“Did Grandma want you to die?”
My chest tightened.
“No evidence says that.”
Eight-year-olds do not enjoy evidentiary language.
“So no?”
“I don’t believe she wanted me to die.”
“Then why put bad medicine?”
“Because Grandma decided she knew what my body needed without asking me.”
Chloe frowned.
“That’s dumb.”
“Yes.”
“Grandmas aren’t doctors.”
“Correct.”
“Doctors have to ask?”
“Usually, yes. And explain.”
She thought.
Then:
“Why did she say it was for your stomach?”
That was harder.
“Because she knew I wouldn’t drink it if I knew what it really was.”
Chloe went quiet.
“That’s lying.”
May you like
“Yes.”
Children have useful vocabularies.
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