Chapter 15
I set him down and gave his chubby cheeks a couple of light slaps, speaking kindly as if I were the best parent in the world.
“In this house, Chloe is the one with the highest status!”
“From now on, no matter what you do, you start with: Reporting to Queen Chloe! Got it?”
“Why? My mom says I’m the little emperor of this family!” David pouted, defiant.
I twisted both his ears until he was dangling three feet off the floor.
“Wrong answer.”
“Ahhh! Put me down!” he wailed.
“I was wrong, please let me go!”
“Reporting to Queen Chloe, I was wrong! Please put me down!”
“Much better.” I dropped him with satisfaction.
Then I dug out all the best treats and handed them to Chloe.
David drooled as he watched. “Reporting to Queen Chloe, may I have some too?”
“Here, a reward.” I tossed him the strawberry tops and leftover tart crust Chloe didn’t want.
And so, I began shaping Chloe into a little queen while teaching David the art of submission.
Soon, the rest of the family returned.
Alex came hobbling in with a cast on his leg, escorted back home from the hospital by a nursing assistant. With the so–called pillar of the household collapsed, Susan and Amelie no longer dared to make a fuss When Susan’s itch for playing cards flared
up
she had to ask my permission to go out.
When Amelie came back from shopping, the first thing she did was offer up her purchases to please me.
David now called Chloe “Queen Chloe” with every other sentence.
I issued orders with ease!
“Susan, go do the laundry!”
Then to Amelie: “And you, get a roast chicken back. Don’t you know there’s a patient at home?”
When she came back, I tore off a drumstick for myself.
Amelie whispered, “Wasn’t this supposed to be for the patient…”
I pointed at the gnawed bones. “Of course. These go in his dish.‘
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” She swallowed her anger and went to the kitchen.
After Alex was fed fried cockroaches, fried foot calluses, fried hair (which was collected from the sewer), and the meat floss I scraped out from between my teeth, he finally broke.
Limping toward me, he burst into tears.
“Eloise, let’s get a divorce.”
Chapter 15
