Chapter 3 - THE FIRST TIME MARGARET SAID ITMargaret did not begin by saying Sophie was illegitimate.
She began with resemblance.
At Sophie’s birth:
“She has your nose.”
At six months:
“Still looks exactly like Claire.”
At one:
“Funny how some children take after only one side.”
That sounds harmless written down.
It did not feel harmless when repeated at every holiday.
Daniel ignored it.
I tried.
Then Sophie turned two.
Margaret was helping me sort family photographs.
She held an old picture of Daniel as a toddler beside one of Sophie.
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“No resemblance.”
I laughed.
“Children change.”
She looked at me.
“Sometimes.”
That was the first time I understood she was not talking about genetics casually.
I told Daniel that night.
He rolled his eyes.
“My mother is weird about family resemblance.”
“Do you think she’s implying something?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“She thinks everyone should look like Dad.”
Daniel’s father, Robert Dawson, had died the year before Sophie was born.
Heart attack at sixty-eight.
Daniel worshipped him.
Robert had been quiet, competent, patient.
The parent Daniel always described as safe.
Margaret was the one who filled rooms.
Robert made them calmer.
Daniel looked more like Margaret than Robert.
May you like
That mattered later.
At the time, it meant nothing.
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