✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

105. My Big Day

Weeks passed, day by day. I spoke to Carter occasionally, but she didn't confide in me or ask for help again. After almost a whole day spent looking over wedding dresses, I was sure I'd picked out one that her friend would like. She liked my choices, especially when I could give reasons why they were completely logical and would allow her friend to command the attention of the crowd. She told me that her friend thought it was nice, and that she would tell me how the wedding went. After that, any time I spent browsing dresses online was for my own interest.

Over the next few weeks I got to play with baby Tess a few times, but never anything serious. I tried to follow the hints I'd gotten from watching her and Ffrances play; sometimes I'd suggest that she could use her potty and feel proud of it; while sometimes I would say that she didn't quite make it. Once she realised that I was trying to make the scene feel good for her too, and not just following the script I'd decided on when I first met her, she was a lot more willing to play along. She still had to say "I am that young" herself; she would never trust anyone else with that. But as long as she played along, I could keep building on any pleasure I could give her, and make sure she came to associate my instructions with enjoyment. Before long she would realise just how natural it was to enjoy what I had told her to enjoy, and she wouldn't need to fight anymore.

I spoke to the creep again, as well. Spike. I had to start using his name if I was going to talk to him for any length of time, even if it was a name that made me think of some depraved gang-banger who'd never had a decent family. I made sure he knew that what Tess really wanted was to be turned into a baby even as she denied it; that she craved to be forced into that role, which was why she'd spent so long trying to persuade us that it would be good for her. I tried to make him understand that she wouldn#t stay interested in him if she didn't think there was a chance he would do something like that; and that if she even came close to mentioning regression, it would be because she secretly hoped he would push past her limits.

It was a bit harsh, I guessed, to treat him like that. But either he would lose interest, he would push her into the things she wasn't even willing to try, or he would try and she'd quickly realise that he wasn't really the good guy she had trained herself to assume. She would have to see him as he really was, and I hoped that would be enough to drive a wedge between them.

When it came to the first day of the conference, I couldn't give my family the attention they needed. Claughton Innovative was my family now, and I couldn't look at anything that wasn't a part of their business for a whole weekend. And there were so many secrets, so many parts of the conference that needed to be dealt with. Because this wasn't just the Claughton investors meeting with the creatives; there were big-name directors and movie stars here as well. All holed up in different independent hotels in Upper Ashfields, with their real identities and roles kept strictly on a need-to-know basis. This was it, the big deal. And the day I would hopefully be able to get what I needed to completely change the structure of my family.

It would be worth it, I told myself for possibly the tenth time that morning. It was worth all the effort, and the sacrifices, if it would bring us closer in the end. The night before I'd suggested a little party, watching more of those awful movies from the last century, with both Tess and Ffrances using the hypnotic suggestions to be my babies. They were so cute, I genuinely felt bad about leaving them to fend for themselves for a couple of days. It was hard to believe that it was worth it.

I was more nervous when I heard that Spike was coming over for dinner while I was away. Sure, he was a friend now. Tess wouldn't trust me at all unless I proved that I had forgiven him, and it was the third time he would be in the house. But I was still waiting for the moment he would decide Tess's obsession with diapers was too far from the kinky 'daddy' role he expected; or when he would finally push her too far. She was bound to be upset, and I needed to be there to comfort her if I wanted to make the most of that opportunity. I didn't want it to happen while I was away. I told Ffrances that I was worried about the two of them getting too intimate in our house; but she just tried to reassure me that she would keep her eye on them. Of course she would; but she trusted that little creep. And if she was the one to comfort Tess, it would only further build up the trust between the two of them. The bond that seemed to be so strong when I was absent, taking my input out of the equation completely. I'd been the one to see that Tess wanted to be babied; I was the one who had pushed her so far. Was it so hard to understand that I deserved to be her Mommy when she realised that she needed one?