Chapter 14
They eventually spoke.
I did not attend.
Linnea told me only what she wanted afterward.
Rosamund apologized specifically.
For the champagne.
The money.
The command.
The way she smiled at guests while doing it.
Then she said something Linnea appreciated.
“I liked that they laughed.”
There.
Ugly truth.
Not merely father approval.
For those fifteen seconds, Rosamund enjoyed being the most powerful person around someone who could not safely fight back.
That mattered.
People change only after naming the part of themselves they prefer to deny.
Linnea asked:
“Do you still like that feeling?”
Rosamund said:
“Sometimes.”
Honest.
“Then what?”
“I don’t act on it.”
Better.
Control is not absence of impulse.
It is what happens after.
Linnea did not forgive her that day.
May you like
Months later, maybe partly.
Not my business.
