“You heard that, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
She covered her face briefly.
“I was talking to my sister.”
“I assumed that.”
“I was angry.”
“At my parents?”
“At everybody.”
She looked toward the garden.
“My mother spent years caring for my grandmother. Nobody helped her. Then after Grandma died, everyone criticized every decision she had made.”
She picked at a loose thread on her sleeve.
“I think I became obsessed with preventing that. I thought being in charge meant nobody could blame me.”
“And instead?”
“I became somebody people were afraid to disagree with.”
Her voice remained steady.
“I don’t like that person.”
“Then don’t keep being her.”
She looked at me.
“That simple?”
“No.”
I smiled slightly.
“But the sentence is simple.”
She accepted that.
The following Monday, Bellweather Hospitality released Derek’s final contract payment.
He repaid the full amount removed from my parents’ account.
Then he did something none of us expected.
