Chapter 5 - Linda Had Been Competing With a Two-Year-Old
Linda’s treatment of Ellie had always been strange.
Not openly monstrous.
Just unequal.
Cole got weekend sleepovers.
Trips.
New clothes.
A miniature electric Jeep.
Ellie got comments.
“She’s too attached to Mommy.”
“She cries too easily.”
“She needs to toughen up.”
“Just like Nora.”
Once, after my father created an education-and-welfare trust for Ellie using money from my late grandmother, Linda became furious.
“Why does Arthur control our granddaughter’s money?”
“He doesn’t.”
“He’s trustee.”
“No. A bank is.”
She did not care.
The trust held approximately $680,000.
Not fantasy money.
Not millions upon millions.
Enough for education and specified welfare expenses.
Professionally administered.
Ben was not trustee.
Neither was I alone.
That structure insulted Linda.
During one argument she said:
“Cole is a Bennett. Ellie is going to grow up thinking she owns everything because of your father.”
At the time I dismissed it.
Now I understood.
Linda did not see Ellie simply as her granddaughter.
She saw my daughter as an extension of the Carter side.
Property.
Independence.
Money she could not direct.
Even a toddler became symbolic.
Then extended relatives began contacting me.
LINDA LOVES ELLIE.
YOU’RE DESTROYING THE FAMILY OVER AN ACCIDENT.
YOU’RE USING YOUR FATHER’S MONEY TO PUNISH BEN.
I wanted to answer.
Dad stopped me.
“Why?”
“Because they are talking.”
He held up the backed-up recording.
“You are listening.”
He was right.
The Bennett family group chat became a gift.
Gary:
WE NEED TO AGREE ON EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED.
Linda:
I already told them Ellie grabbed me.
Dana:
No, you said she reached for Cole’s cup.
Ben:
STOP TEXTING THIS.
Gary:
Ben is right.
Linda:
Nora will twist everything.
Ben:
EVERYONE DELETE THIS THREAD.
Dana screenshot it before deletion and sent it to me.
Again:
Not courage.
May you like
Fear.
But evidence does not become useless because the witness providing it is frightened.
