BBM. She was actually the middle of the 3 children. Her brother (whose father is also CD) is roughly 2 years older. Your point about DV possibly targeting her because she was female stands, though. Other reasons I think are possible are:
* BB seems to have some lingering resentment about the circumstances of Maleah's birth, i.e. that she was alone. It sounds like she had more support at the times of both her sons' births and that she and CD may have split up sometime while she was pregnant with Maleah. If this has anything to do with how well she bonded with baby Maleah, whatever struggle there was could have eventually spread to how she treated M and then how she expected DV to treat her.
* Maleah seemed normal before the brain injury from what we have seen, but things could have escalated even more if the adults in the family saw her as the cause of the stress of the hospitalizations, the CPS involvement, and all the hoops they had to jump through. (Yes, the brain injury was AN ADULT'S FAULT, but they seem like the kind of "poor me" victim types who would spin it this way).
* Maleah was ADORABLE and probably got a lot of attention from people everywhere for her physical beauty. For a normal parent this is part of the joy and wonder of having a lovely child, but for these parents it could have caused resentment.
