Chapter 18 - The Woman Judith Became
Judith entered counseling because the court required it.
At first, she treated it like punishment.
Then something changed.
I learned this through Daniel.
Judith began writing down every lie she had told.
The list was seventeen pages long.
Thomas’s paternity.
Arthur’s payment.
The mill meeting.
The suitcase.
The investigator.
The forged trust transfers.
Richard’s amendment.
Maisie.
Daniel visited her once every two weeks.
He never brought Maisie.
Judith hated that.
“She's my granddaughter.”
Daniel’s response remained the same.
“Being related to someone does not give you access to them.”
It was a sentence Judith should have learned forty years earlier.
Eventually she asked to meet me.
I refused twice.
The third time, I agreed.
We met in a therapist’s office.
Judith looked smaller than I remembered.
No diamonds.
No perfect jacket.
No family audience.
Just a seventy-year-old woman sitting across from the person whose daughter she had humiliated.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I waited.
“I should never have restrained Maisie.”
“No.”
“I convinced myself I was protecting Daniel.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
She nodded.
That surprised me.
“I know.”
“Why Maisie?”
Judith looked at her hands.
“Because she scared me.”
“A five-year-old scared you?”
“Her eyes.”
I frowned.
“She has Thomas’s eyes.”
That was the first time she admitted it.
“When she was a baby, I noticed.”
“So you knew?”
“I suspected.”
Judith’s eyes filled.
“Every time I looked at her, I saw him.”
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“And instead of facing what you did, you turned her into the threat.”
Judith closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The answer did not erase anything.
But at least it was true.
“I don’t forgive you.”
She nodded.
“I understand.”
“Maisie may decide differently someday.”
“I know.”
“But you will never pressure her.”
“I won’t.”
“And you will never tell her that what you did was for the family.”
Judith began crying.
“I won’t.”
I stood to leave.
“Claire.”
I turned.
“There’s one thing I want her to know someday.”
“What?”
Judith took a breath.
May you like
“Thomas would have loved her.”
For once, I believed her.
