Chapter 16
Percival never changed enough.
He moved away.
Still complained through relatives.
Still called my advisory reforms weakness.
Still believed Beatrix made me sentimental.
Fine.
He no longer had access to turn belief into structure.
Cordelia divorced him.
Her choice.
She rebuilt some relationship with family.
Not leadership.
She never asked.
Good.
Anthony Bram eventually returned to one rotating advisory meeting.
His first disagreement with me was direct.
I almost smiled.
“Good.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“You said it to my face.”
Progress.
The family became noisier.
Much healthier.
Beatrix grew louder too.
At five, she stopped carrying the rabbit everywhere.
That surprised me.
One morning it remained on her bed.
“You forgot Bunny.”
“No.”
She shrugged.
“Bunny tired.”
Fair.
I left it.
That day she went to school without her mother’s hidden key, without Amelia’s secret, without the object adults once treated like evidence.
Just Beatrix.
Good.
When she returned, she grabbed the rabbit immediately.
May you like
Also good.
Attachment does not need disappearance to prove growth.
