Chapter 12
Preston contacted Elena directly two months later.
Bad choice.
Not threatening.
Apologizing.
He wrote:
I never wanted you dead. I wanted the problem gone.
Elena showed me.
I stared at the sentence.
Then looked at her.
“You answering?”
“No.”
Good.
She blocked him.
Simple.
No dramatic confrontation.
He sent one message through Victoria afterward.
She refused to deliver it.
Interesting.
Victoria had begun changing too.
Not for us.
For herself.
She moved out of the Sloan family estate.
Started handling a legitimate hospitality business alone.
Preston called her disloyal.
Of course.
Anyone leaving a controlling structure gets called disloyal by the people losing access.
Elena heard about it.
Said nothing.
Months later Victoria asked to apologize to her.
Elena said no.
Then six months later:
Maybe.
The meeting happened at a café.
I did not attend.
Not my apology.
Elena told me afterward.
Victoria admitted everything she knew.
Clinic.
Letter.
Lake house.
Silvio.
Preston.
She did not defend herself with love.
That helped.
Elena asked one question.
“Why did you hate my baby?”
Victoria cried.
“I didn’t.”
“Then why burn the ultrasound?”
Victoria answered:
“Because seeing it made the future real.”
There.
The image represented the collapse of the life she wanted.
So she attacked the image.
Not rational.
Human.
Still wrong.
Elena did not forgive her that day.
She did say:
“Thank you for finally answering honestly.”
May you like
Sometimes that is the beginning of nothing more than peace.
Enough.
