Chapter 15
One year after Blackthorne, Adrienne stopped using the Croft surname professionally.
Not because I asked.
She returned to Bellandi.
Her mother’s family name.
Wesley called it theft.
Names again.
Ownership again.
She ignored him.
Adrienne built an event-planning business outside family operations.
No special contracts from me.
She wanted proof she could function without paternal approval.
Good.
Gideon visited sometimes.
Hazel called him “Bell Grandpa,” despite no relation.
He hated it.
She continued.
Justice.
I learned more about my own childhood at Blackthorne through him.
Some memories were good.
Horse rides.
Books.
Cake stolen from the kitchen.
That complicated things.
Important.
A place can hold manipulation and joy.
People can hurt you and also have loved you.
Nuance does not absolve.
It makes memory honest.
I asked Gideon once:
“Did my father love me?”
He looked offended.
“Of course.”
“Then why send me here?”
“Because he thought love meant preparing you.”
There.
The old mistake.
Parents often control hardest when convinced control is sacrifice.
I thought about Hazel.
How easy it would be to repeat it differently.
Schedule everything.
Protect every friendship.
Vet every choice.
Call it safety.
Maybe the lesson was not “never decide for children.”
Impossible.
The lesson was remembering parental authority has an expiration date built into it.
The job is to grow their agency until yours is less necessary.
My father prepared me to command.
I wanted to prepare Hazel to choose.
Maybe she would lead Bellandi.
Maybe not.
May you like
The uncertainty no longer frightened me.
That was progress.
