Once the door closed, Eloise looked at me with concern.
“Sophie,” Eloise began, her voice steady yet filled with a hint of frustration, “what you experienced tonight isn’t about you or any real issue with hygiene. It’s about them.”
She gestured toward the dining room.
Then she explained.
Jacob and Nancy believed they possessed unusually powerful senses.
“They have this strange notion of possessing super senses,” she confided.
According to Eloise, they believed they could detect smells, flaws, and subtle details that ordinary people could not perceive.
They treated this belief as evidence of their superiority.
Over time, it had separated them from reason and made them increasingly convinced that their perceptions were always correct.
As Eloise described the family’s beliefs, I felt two emotions at once.
Relief.
And anger.
Relief because someone was finally confirming that I did not have a hygiene problem.
Anger because I realized how completely Jacob had manipulated me.
