Chapter 3 - The Gathering StormThe atmosphere inside our home turned icy.
James realized I was no longer playing along, but he couldn't openly fight me without exposing his own behavior. Instead, he escalated his efforts outside the house.
On Saturday morning, my mother called me, her voice laced with awkward hesitation.
"Colette... darling," my mother began cautiously. "James mentioned to your father that you've been feeling... overwhelmed lately. He said you've been acting a bit distant with Annie and that the pregnancy hormones might be causing some mood swings."
I closed my eyes, feeling a surge of white-hot anger, but forced my voice to stay entirely steady.
"Mom," I said, "did James tell you that he wrote a physical checklist instructing himself to 'reduce Annie's dependence on Mom' six weeks before my due date?"
Silence deadened the line. "What?"
"Did he show you the drawing Annie made at school where she put me and the baby on one side of a black line and herself with James on the other?" I continued, my voice trembling with contained emotion. "He's manipulating our daughter, Mom. He's telling everyone I'm unstable so he can build a case against me."
My mother gasped. "Oh, my god. Colette... he sounded so concerned when he called us. He sounded like he was trying to protect you!"
"He's protecting his control," I said. "I am sending you photos of his notes right now. I need you and Dad to read them before you say another word to him."
Thirty minutes later, my parents drove over to our house.
When James opened the door, expecting my parents to step in and "intervene" on his behalf, my father walked straight past him, his face dark with fury, while my mother went straight to the living room to wrap her arms around me and Annie.
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"James," my father said in a voice that shook the entryway, "we need to have a private conversation in the study. Right now."
James looked at my father’s face, then at my mother, and finally at me. For the first time since this nightmare began, I saw a flash of genuine fear cross his eyes.
