Chapter 11 - Mark
Carla’s estranged husband Mark entered the story reluctantly.
Daniel’s brother.
Forty.
He had left Carla after fourteen years.
No children.
That absence had become a wound Carla carried badly.
She loved Lily.
I believe that.
She also resented how much authority I had over the relationship.
Mark said during an interview:
“Carla treated Lily like the child she should’ve had.”
Harsh.
Maybe unfair.
Then he described conflict.
Carla bought Lily expensive clothes without asking.
I returned some.
Carla took that personally.
She wanted sleepovers.
I limited them because Carla drank too much wine sometimes.
She said I judged her.
Mark said:
“She started saying Naomi was raising Lily to be self-centered.”
Did Mark ever see Carla hit Lily?
“No.”
Did he see discipline?
“Yes.”
Carla once made Lily rewrite an apology six times because:
“It didn’t sound sincere.”
I had never known.
Mark told Carla:
“You’re not her mother.”
The same sentence Lily eventually used.
Where did Lily hear it?
Maybe from Mark.
Maybe obvious.
Carla experienced it as rejection from husband and child at once.
May you like
That helped explain why those words triggered her.
It did not excuse the swing.
