Chapter 16 - WHAT CELESTE TOLD SOPHIE ABOUT HER MOTHER
Play therapy revealed a pattern.
Not through interrogation.
Through repeated phrases Sophie used while playing house.
The doll called Mommy went into a box.
The new Mommy said:
“Old Mommy doesn’t live here.”
Another day:
“Pictures make Daddy sad.”
Another:
“Mommy left money because she didn’t trust Daddy.”
Sophie had heard adults discussing the trust.
Too much.
I asked Celeste through counsel whether she had said those things.
She admitted parts.
She told Sophie:
“Your mommy planned things because she knew she might die.”
True.
Then:
“Daddy keeps the picture because he misses her.”
Also true.
Then:
“Sometimes pictures can keep people stuck.”
An opinion.
Then one day Sophie asked:
“Did Mommy leave me?”
Celeste answered:
“Yes, but not because she wanted to.”
Technically death.
But a four-year-old heard abandonment.
Rebecca did not choose cancer.
Celeste later said she regretted the wording.
Then the worst phrase:
“If you want me to be your mommy too, you can’t run to Rebecca every time you’re mad.”
Sophie understood that as:
Picture versus Celeste.
Adults created another loyalty test.
After the suitcase, Sophie stopped calling Celeste Momma C.
She called her Celeste.
No one instructed that.
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No one celebrated.
Loss is loss even when the person caused it.
