Chapter 4 - Shadows of the Past
That evening, Mark’s uncle—Barbara’s estranged younger brother, David—arrived at our house. David hadn't spoken to Barbara in nearly a decade, but when Mark called him in a panic, he drove two hours straight to see us.
We sat in the living room while Noah slept upstairs—this time safely in his own bed, with an electronic baby monitor sitting on his nightstand so he knew we were listening.
David took a deep sip of black coffee and sighed deeply. “I was afraid something like this would happen, Mark. I should have warned you years ago.”
“Warned us about what, Uncle David?” Mark asked, his knuckles white. “I knew Mom was rigid, but this... this is evil.”
David looked at me, then at Lily sleeping peacefully in her bassinet. “Barbara has a obsession with perfection and control, Mark. It stems from our childhood, but it got worse after what happened to our youngest sister, Ellen.”
Mark frowned. “Aunt Ellen? She died of leukemia before I was born.”
“That’s the story Barbara told you,” David said quietly. “The truth is, Ellen wasn't sick with leukemia. Ellen was born in 1972 with severe brain damage due to oxygen deprivation at birth. Our parents were ashamed. But Barbara... Barbara was obsessed with keeping up appearances in our wealthy neighborhood.”
I gasped, covering my mouth.
“When Barbara was eighteen,” David continued, “our parents were out of town. Ellen had a severe medical crisis. Instead of calling an ambulance immediately, Barbara locked Ellen in her room for hours because she didn't want the neighbors to see an ambulance outside the house. By the time my parents came home and got Ellen to a hospital, it was too late. Ellen passed away three days later.”
The room felt ice cold.
“She blamed the doctors,” David said. “She rewrote history in her head to pretend Ellen never existed, or that she died of an ‘unavoidable illness.’ Barbara believes that anything less than physical and mental perfection is a flaw that must be erased. When Lily was born with Down syndrome, it triggered every dark, sick instinct inside her. She couldn't handle the 'stigma' again.”
Mark put his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. His own mother had viewed his precious baby girl as a mistake that needed to be swept under the rug.
May you like
“We are filing a restraining order tomorrow,” Mark choked out.
“You need to do more than that,” David warned sternly. “Barbara has money from your father’s life insurance. She hired a high-powered family lawyer last week. She’s building a case to claim that you and Claire are mentally unfit and financially incapable of caring for a special-needs child.”
