Louise

Louise is the antagonist of the novel that kills the children in her charge. When she was twenty-five years old, she was working for an artist whose mother was disabled and in need of a fulltime care person. Louise was excellent at her job, and when she got pregnant, her boss offered to pay for her abortion, give her a raise, and sign a good contract with her. But Louise ran away and had the child, Stéphanie.

Shortly after this, Louise married Jacques, who was emotionally abusive. Louise stayed with him anyway, and invested her energy in becoming a wonderful nanny, at the expense of her own role as a mother to her own daughter. She always put everyone else's needs above hers, and indeed seemed to much prefer playing stagehand in the lives of other people than trying to star in a production where everything was...