Chapter 13 - The marriage I thought I had
Camilla had been kind to me.
That made the story harder.
After Laurel died, I became functional before I became alive.
Work.
Pippa.
Laundry.
School.
Repeat.
Camilla brought laughter back.
She never pressured me to remove my wedding ring during the first year we dated.
She helped organize Laurel’s photographs for Pippa.
At our wedding she told Pippa:
“I am not replacing anybody.”
I believed her.
For a while, I think she believed herself.
Marriage changed something.
So did my travel schedule.
My company expanded.
I became responsible for regional operations.
I was gone four to six nights some months.
Camilla became the default adult at home.
Resentment grew where I could not see it.
She stopped being the woman helping raise Pippa.
She began believing she was the person doing the hard work while I returned home for affection.
There was some truth there.
Not about abuse.
May you like
About burden.
I had underestimated how much parenting I had outsourced while telling myself providing financially was also parenting.
