Chapter 12 - MARGARET’S OBSESSION WITH BLOOD
Therapy did not transform Margaret overnight.
Her first apologies were terrible.
“I only wanted to protect the family.”
Rejected.
“I was devastated by your divorce.”
Irrelevant.
“I loved Sophie even when I doubted where she came from.”
Worse.
Eventually:
“I used blood as a way to rank people because I was afraid of losing control over what family meant.”
Better.
Then:
“I knew enough about Sophie’s conception to understand that my accusations against her were cruel and hypocritical.”
Accurate.
That was the first statement I believed.
Margaret had spent her life equating biological continuity with legitimacy.
Then Dr. Parker’s act made that continuity grotesquely complicated.
Instead of rejecting the obsession, she intensified it.
Sophie became the container for shame Margaret did not want to face.
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That explained years of cruelty.
It did not excuse one second.
