Chapter 11
Rosaline eventually asked Gareth one question through me.
Not about herself.
“Does he understand why breaking the bracelet mattered?”
I asked him.
He thought.
Then answered:
“Because she made it for me.”
Not enough.
I waited.
He tried again.
“Because she chose the design.”
Closer.
Then:
“And I destroyed it because it wasn’t the thing I wanted her to become.”
There.
Correct.
Rosaline heard the answer and cried.
Still refused contact.
Fine.
Insight does not purchase access.
Gareth started counseling privately.
No family audience.
No dramatic claims of transformation.
Good.
He also left the collector circuit entirely.
At first because doors closed.
Later, perhaps because he understood every room triggered the old hunger.
He returned to managing a small design studio he had neglected after marrying Rosaline.
Interesting.
He was talented when not trying to borrow someone else’s legacy.
May you like
That mattered.
People often become dangerous when they abandon their own identity for proximity to a more prestigious one.
