Virginia Harding

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Virginia Harding
"Jesus has nothing to do with this, honey. Satan, yes."
Portrayed by	Debra Monk
Details
Occupation	Heiress
Cause of death	Wrists slashed by the Women in Black
Relationships	Dex Harding † (son) Anna Victoria Alcott (daughter-in-law) Adeline Harding † (ex-daughter-in-law) Dexter Harding, Sr. (ex-husband, abuser) Mavis Preecher † (confidant) Siobhan Corbyn † (killer) Women in Black (killers)
Appearances	Vanishing Twin Preech Opening Night Ave Hestia

Virginia Harding is the mother of Dex Harding with distant mannerisms that had been scorned as a victim of blood-letting rituals. She is a character in Delicate portrayed by Debra Monk.

Background

Virginia is the cold and yearly estranged mother of Dex Harding who is suing her ex-husband, Dexter Harding, Sr..

Story

Returning to their Brooklyn Heights apartment, the couple is happy to be home. Anna is wary of the new security sensor installed on the ceiling, though Kamal insists it is not a camera. They are surprised to see Dex's mother, Virginia, staying at the apartment. Virginia offers to help in any way, then asks for a private conversation with Dex; she wants him to testify on her behalf in a civil suit against his father. Meanwhile, Anna discovers her hair is falling out in clumps. She regards the already fractured and stained mirror and destroys the glass in a rage.

Dex has lunch with Virginia, who is annoyed that women like Anna want to get pregnant. She explains that in her era, married women having abortions was illegal butchery. Dex tells her that Anna misses the maternal bond, never having gotten the opportunity as her mother died when Anna was young. Dex wants a family, but Victoria ignores his desires. He urges her to get to the point of what she wants. Virginia has been working with a therapist who specializes in recovery from satanic ritual abuse, a therapeutic specialization of which Dex has a dim view. Virginia insists, despite Dex's recollections, that his father drugged and forced her into hideous activities.

Back in the present, Virginia is still trying to get him to testify against his father, but he says he has nothing against his father. He wants her to drop things, but she can't. He says he's worried she'll come out of things looking crazy. She's not worried about that and points out that women will do anything for each other, but some men won't even stand up for the women who birthed them. Elsewhere, Virginia gets out of a meeting with her attorney and finds herself in a strange alley, where she's confronted by the same black glad figures we've seen throughout the series. When she leaves the alley, she's approached by Mavis Preecher who says she needs to speak with her.

Preecher tells her story, about how she was 25 and rising in the world of fashion but had a one-night stand and planned to get an abortion but was approached by a woman who said she could help. She just had to give her the baby. Preecher doesn't know what the woman wanted but she has theories and thinks the woman was planning something. The woman said she'd give her the world in exchange. She did it. Preecher tells Dex's mom that her son and Anna are in danger, and they are coming for them. Turns out Adeline was one of the mysterious group's power players, and she defected because she fell in love with him. As they speak, a woman is watching.

Sometime later, Dex finds his mother's dead body in her tub, surrounded by candles and satanic symbols. Her wrists are slit, and on the mirror a message written in lipstick and blood reads "I tried to warn you".

Notes

• Virginia Harding is the first character to be portrayed by Debra Monk.