Chapter 15 - THE NOTES VANESSA TWISTED
Dr. Cole reviewed Noah’s old grief records.
One note read:
Patient occasionally imagines mother returning home and incorporates possibility into play. Developmentally understandable in context of ambiguous loss.
Vanessa had summarized it to Ethan as:
Therapist says Noah still thinks Claire may come back.
Not exactly false.
Deeply misleading.
Another note:
No evidence of psychosis, severe thought disturbance, or inability to distinguish imagination from reality.
Vanessa never mentioned that.
Ethan stared at the record.
“How did I not read this?”
Dr. Cole did not comfort him.
“You trusted the summary.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I trusted my wife.”
“Trust is normal.”
She paused.
“Single-source dependence is different.”
Ethan wrote that down.
Noah did not need a father who trusted nobody.
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He needed one who knew when important claims deserved direct attention.
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