Chapter 7
The engagement ended quietly.
No public humiliation.
No announcement blaming grief.
I told guests we had postponed indefinitely.
Then privately told Serilda:
“We are not getting married.”
She cried.
So did I later.
Alone.
Love can survive the decision that marriage should not.
“What about Evangeline?”
Serilda asked.
“Not your concern.”
That surprised her.
Maybe she expected shared punishment to make her own consequence feel fair.
No.
Different actions.
Different consequences.
Serilda had humiliated Avelise publicly.
Forced makeup on her.
Forced jewelry onto her body.
Used a servant as a prop in a private emotional war.
That ended our engagement.
Evangeline had violated Lenora’s burial.
Manipulated Serilda’s insecurity.
Used family access to resurrect authority my wife explicitly asked her not to preserve.
That ended something else.
Her unrestricted place in my home.
I removed her automatic access that day.
She called it exile.
It wasn’t.
She still had her life.
Her house.
Her family.
Her money.
She simply needed invitation like everyone else.
May you like
For someone who had spent nine years walking through every Wrenmoor door, that felt enormous.
Good.
