She nods slowly, tears streaming down her face. I understand. I just thought maybe after all this time… After all this time what? You’d earned forgiveness? You think serving 18 months in minimum security erases 8 years of financial abuse followed by attempted murder? I know it doesn’t.
I just hoped. Hope is what I had when I was underwater screaming for help. Hope is what I had when I thought my own family would choose my life over their grudges.
Hope almost got me killed. I stand and walk to the window, looking out at the city where I’ve built something real, something lasting, something that no one can take away from me. You made your choice that night on the dock, Tamara.
Live with it. She leaves without another word and I go back to my contracts. My phone shows 17 missed calls from numbers I don’t recognize.
Probably Jerome calling from prison or Marcus trying to get commissary money or my mother hoping I’ll visit. I delete them all without listening. The woman who almost drowned in that lake is gone forever.
The woman who survived is someone they should have protected instead of destroying. Someone they could have been proud of instead of jealous of. Someone who could have lifted the whole family up instead of watching them tear themselves down.
But they chose to be enemies instead of family. And now they’re exactly where they put themselves. Drowning in the consequences of their own actions with no one left to save them.
I’m not bitter about it anymore. I’m grateful. They set me free.
Final verdict time.
Обсуждение закрыто.