Violetta placed Roselle’s pay envelope beside a small brass key and forced the young single mother to choose between her wages and reaching her six-year-old son.
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Chapter 10 / 17
Chapter 10
Violetta moved out.
No dramatic expulsion.
No guards escorting her with suitcases.
She packed.
Returned the engagement ring.
Left.
Her father’s name had been restored within Ashcombe circles, but she did not use that victory as leverage.
Good.
She cut contact with two relatives who had encouraged her to “take whatever Ashcombe owes us.”
Also good.
Then she wrote Roselle a letter.
One.
Not repeated.
Roselle gave me permission to read it later.
Violetta wrote:
I used your wages because I knew you needed them.
I used Owen because I knew you needed him more.
I told myself my father’s name justified what I was doing.
It didn’t.
I am sorry.
No request for forgiveness.
No story about childhood.
No “but.”
Good.
May you like
Roselle did not reply.
Also good.
