Page 35 of By the Time You Read This (Raisa Susanto #3)

Although I would never diagnose Isabel without having seen her as a patient myself, I believe she has a severe attachment disorder that manifests especially strongly when it comes to her surviving family members, Raisa and Delaney.

We have access to Becks’s diary, but my suspicion is that in it she paints a far rosier picture of the girls’ childhood than actually existed.

We know that Tim Parker had schizophrenia, and that Becks was so worried about it that she was tracking good and bad days in the weeks prior to their deaths. In the diary, she also talks about how distant she and Tim felt from their children when the girls were babies. She makes sure to mention that Tim only cared about them when they started showing signs of genius.

Their work as mathematicians was paramount for both of them, and Becks was resentful of Tim that he seemed to be getting her pregnant just so that he could handcuff her career.

In all, there are certainly signs that the girls and Alex might have been vulnerable to reactive attachment disorder.

The signs to watch out for in young children are as follows:

1) Unexplained withdrawal, fear, sadness, or irritability;

2) Not seeking comfort or showing no response when comfort is given;

3) Failure to smile;

4) Failure to reach out when picked up;

5) No interest in peekaboo or other interactive games.

And so on.

We’ll never know if Isabel could have been saved from her life of violent, sadistic crime. It’s unlikely that she could have been, given her psychopathy.

But, when trying to understand Isabel, many people—I’m guessing herself included—describe her childhood as normal. I don’t think that was the case.

People say Isabel killed her parents because she was a psychopath—that she didn’t need a motive.

While that might be true to some extent, they were the ones who had fractured that relationship with their daughter.

I believe Tim and Becks Parker’s coldness, mental health issues, and distance created attachment disorders in all of their children, some more severe than others.

And while both Delaney and Raisa are successful, well-adjusted and productive adults, the lack of any fulfilling, permanent relationships in their lives are proof that none of the kids were spared.