Chapter 8
Marcus lost his Sterling position.
He expected worse.
That irritated me.
“What were you expecting?”
He looked at the floor.
“Depends which version of you is real.”
Interesting.
“The one Isabella studied?”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
Fair.
I had to live with that.
He had spent years around me too.
How much of my reputation came from actual behavior?
How much from stories people told because they feared testing me?
I did not need to resolve that today.
Marcus did.
“You knew my daughter was behind the wall.”
“Yes.”
“That alone removes you.”
He nodded.
No argument.
Good.
Then:
“You attacked me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I thought if I got the letters, Isabella could leave before you read them.”
Still protecting her.
“You were willing to hit me with Charlotte ten feet away.”
His face changed.
He had not considered that.
Anger narrows rooms.
“I’m sorry.”
“Not mine.”
Again.
Charlotte.
Emma.
The people endangered.
Marcus asked whether he could someday apologize.
Maybe.
Not now.
He left Sterling work entirely.
No grand redemption role elsewhere.
I heard months later he moved to Philadelphia and worked in private security for a hotel group.
Fine.
May you like
Some people do not need to return to the place where they failed in order to prove they changed.
That lesson served me too.
