This is an astute observation. There is a reason it is happening as well. It's blatantly obvious to anyone with any personal experience with the varieties of diagnosed narcissism that Chris appears to have markers of a prominent personality disorder. So with that it mind, it's not too far fetched to assume that he will consciously his children off against one another to get his "fix". Children of narcissistic parents often spend their childhoods with the emotional whiplash of being either the golden child or the scapegoat. It's all about what the parent can get from the child, and not vice versa. During the golden child phases, the child will do everything they can to keep that elusive approval, and often it turns into them mirroring their parent's behaviour. That's why Esme has become as unlikable as she has. She's mirroring her father's behaviour to keep his approval. The more she does this, the more her acts like he loves her. His love for her starts and ends with how he can market her for financial gain. And the more she does for his approval, the more satisfaction it brings him. Only HE knows what the limit is, and considering his history of going after girls not much older than Esme, it churns my guts to think how far she would have to go to maintain this current favouritism.
She won't figure any of this out for years though. All of this is normal to her. Fathers sexualizing their children for content is not normal but how is she supposed to know that? And now she is even more isolated from anyone who could've potentially helped her.
