Chapter 6
We returned to the city with Miriam and Callum.
Not to my house.
Miriam chose a hotel first.
“I want a key nobody’s daughter controls.”
Fair.
I paid for nothing until she allowed it.
Important.
Callum went with Eulalie.
Also choice.
Ottavia waited in my library.
Engagement ring still on.
I placed nothing on the table.
No theatrics.
“Your mother is alive.”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Callum damaged no car.”
“No.”
“Eulalie owed you nothing.”
“No.”
Every answer quiet.
That made it worse.
“Why destroy the wages?”
Her face tightened.
“She was going to use them to hire someone to find Callum.”
There.
Not cruelty for amusement.
Strategy.
If Eulalie kept savings, she could act independently.
So Ottavia destroyed them.
Dependency maintained.
“You told her it was debt.”
“Yes.”
“You knew destroying the money proved the debt was fake.”
“She was emotional. I didn’t think she’d—”
“Think?”
She stopped.
Good.
I sat opposite her.
“Why was your mother dead?”
Tears appeared.
Not manipulation necessarily.
Pain.
“Because dead is cleaner.”
The sentence sat between us.
“Than poor?”
“Than explaining.”
“What?”
She stood.
“My mother cleaned toilets in houses where women like your mother held charity lunches.”
I watched.
“She came home smelling like bleach.”
Her voice broke.
“I used to wait in service corridors while she finished rooms.”
There was no shame in the facts.
Only in Ottavia’s memory of how others made them feel.
Children notice hierarchy before they understand money.
“She sacrificed everything for you.”
“I know.”
“Then why punish her for surviving?”
Ottavia sobbed.
“I wasn’t punishing her.”
“No?”
I remained calm.
“You removed her home.”
“Controlled her travel.”
“Told everyone she died.”
“Held a man under fake debt because he recognized her.”
“Destroyed his sister’s wages.”
I leaned back.
“If that is your version of gratitude, I would hate to see resentment.”
May you like
She covered her face.
For once, no answer arrived.
