Chapter 13
Elise apologized to me before she apologized to Milo.
Wrong order emotionally.
Correct order practically because Milo did not want to see her.
She sat in my office without jewelry or performance.
“I hated Anna.”
“I know.”
“She knew.”
“Probably.”
“She never fought me.”
“That made you angrier.”
Elise laughed once.
“Yes.”
Then she admitted why.
Anna never treated Elise as competition.
That meant the rivalry existed mostly inside Elise.
Hard thing to discover.
“When she died, everyone talked about her like she was perfect.”
“She wasn’t.”
Elise looked surprised.
“No one is.”
Anna could be stubborn.
Sharp.
Terrible at apologizing quickly.
Loved too hard.
Distrusted too slowly until the end.
Dead people do not need sainthood to be loved.
Elise started crying.
“I kept thinking Caleb was the only person who remembered the difficult parts.”
So they bonded over resentment.
Then fed it.
Eventually Milo’s name, my estate, Anna’s choices, Caleb’s grief—everything became proof they had been wronged.
“You used a child to argue with a dead woman.”
Elise closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
That was the truth.
She did not ask forgiveness.
Good.
I told her:
“If Milo ever wants to see you again, he decides the pace.”
She nodded.
“And if he doesn’t?”
May you like
“Then you live with that.”
Consequences do not always offer a completion scene.
