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 16 / 17
Chapter 16
My relationship with Violetta never returned to engagement.
Something else formed.
Respect.
Occasional friendship.
Distance.
She attended Cassian’s name-restoration dinner two years later.
Small.
No portraits.
No dramatic speech.
We simply removed the traitor designation from our internal family record and restored invitations to surviving Harrow relatives.
One old man raised a glass to Cassian.
Violetta stopped him.
“My father was innocent of the first betrayal.”
Then:
“He was not innocent of everything after.”
The room went quiet.
I looked at her.
That was maturity.
Not defending every wound because the first wound was unjust.
She continued:
“Remember him accurately.”
May you like
Good.
That became the toast.
