Chapter 11
Vanessa denied saying it.
Relle did not need her admission.
When they faced each other, I stayed silent.
Danielle stayed beside Relle.
Amara was nowhere near the room.
Good.
Vanessa looked at Relle as if seeing a ghost she had personally dressed for burial.
“You look well.”
Relle almost laughed.
“Do I?”
Vanessa looked away.
Then Relle’s eyes moved to the sapphire ring on the table.
“You wore it.”
Vanessa said nothing.
“At parties?”
Silence.
“Beside Julian?”
Nothing.
“At your wedding fitting?”
Vanessa finally snapped.
“It was a ring.”
Relle stared.
“My daughter recognized it.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“That was what ruined everything?”
“No.”
Relle leaned forward.
“You ruined everything when you decided my child’s grief was useful.”
Silence.
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“My father said you were dangerous.”
Relle laughed bitterly.
“I was a seamstress with a three-year-old.”
“You had the recording.”
“And that made me worth fourteen months of captivity?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Julian, I was trying to protect us.”
There.
Another borrowed virtue.
Us.
As if my future marriage justified Relle losing her life.
I shook my head.
“You were protecting the version of us Caleb designed.”
Her face collapsed slightly.
Then Relle said:
“You told me Amara would forget my voice.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
There it was.
Recognition.
Maybe regret.
Too late to matter yet.
Relle continued.
“You said once Julian married you, nobody would care what happened to a housekeeper’s sister.”
Vanessa whispered:
“I was angry.”
Relle nodded.
“I was imprisoned.”
Simple.
May you like
No equivalent weight.
No excuse could balance the sentence.
