Chapter 29 - The ReflectionThat evening, after Eleanor was fast asleep in her nursery, Adrian and I sat on the terrace of our home, watching the stars come out over the valley.
“Do you ever think about them?” Adrian asked gently, handing me a cup of chamomile tea. “Your father? Vanessa?”
“Sometimes,” I admitted honestly. “Not with anger anymore. Just with a strange kind of pity.”
“Pity?”
“They spent their entire lives building a castle made of sand,” I explained, looking down at my tea. “They were so terrified of being seen as weak that they destroyed everything that was genuine in their lives. They had power, wealth, and status, but they never had security. They never had trust. They never had a single person in their lives who loved them for who they were, rather than what they could provide.”
Adrian reached over, taking my hand in his, his grip warm and solid. “And what do you have, Claire?”
May you like
I looked at him—the man who had stood up from his wheelchair to protect my honor, who had believed in my intellect when the world told me I was nothing, and who had built an empire of dignity alongside me.
“I have everything,” I said softly. “I have truth. I have peace. And I have you.”
