Chapter 9 - I had hated her discipline
Six months before the escape, Rachel and I argued at Christmas.
Leo refused to eat green beans.
Rachel removed his dessert.
Normal enough.
Then Maya threw a spoon.
Rachel made both children sit silently in the hallway while the rest of us finished dinner.
I said:
“They’re six and three.”
She answered:
“They’re capable of learning.”
Jason told me privately:
“Stay out of it.”
I said:
“She treats them like recruits.”
That phrase became part of Rachel’s defense.
Thomas thinks any discipline is abuse.
Did I?
No.
But I had been rude.
Judgmental.
I disliked her before I had evidence.
That meant I needed to be careful not to turn later evidence into proof that every earlier suspicion had been brilliant intuition.
Some of Rachel’s rules were ordinary.
Bedtime.
No hitting.
Toy cleanup.
Limited sweets.
May you like
The basement confinement was not ordinary.
The distinction mattered because prosecutors would eventually need facts, not my personality assessment.
