Chapter 7
I told Gareth to leave the estate.
Rosaline stopped me.
“Not yet.”
I looked at her.
Her choice mattered.
“What do you want?”
She looked at him.
“I want Posy to hear me say it.”
Gareth’s face changed.
Rosaline woke her daughter gently.
Posy blinked.
Confused.
Then immediately looked at Gareth.
Fear returning.
Rosaline held her.
“Sweetheart.”
Posy whispered:
“Bracelet bad?”
“No.”
“Daddy mad?”
“That is not your job anymore.”
Posy stared.
Rosaline continued carefully.
“If you make a bad bracelet, Mommy does not get punished.”
Posy’s face tightened.
“If you cry, Mommy does not get punished.”
Silence.
“If you say the wrong stone…”
“No punishment?”
“No.”
Posy began crying.
Not relief exactly.
Confusion leaving her body.
Rosaline cried too.
Then she looked at Gareth.
“You taught our daughter that loving me meant performing for you.”
He looked away.
“She needed standards.”
“She needed a father.”
That ended it.
Rosaline handed me the wedding ring from her finger.
Not because the marriage could be erased instantly by jewelry.
Symbol mattered.
“I’m not going home with him.”
Her voice steady.
Good.
Gareth looked at me.
“You’re taking my family.”
“No.”
I pointed toward my daughter.
“She is leaving.”
Then toward Posy.
“She goes with her mother.”
A pause.
“You are experiencing choice from the outside.”
He hated that.
Good.
He left under guard.
Not beaten again.
Not dragged.
No need.
May you like
The real punishment had already begun.
People he considered extensions of himself were acting without permission.
