Chapter 10: The Cost

The cost arrived in pieces.
Vanessa lost the house.
She lost the cars.
She lost the accounts she had controlled.
She lost her reputation.
She lost her friends.
She lost her future.
I watched it all from my office and felt nothing like joy.
Only the clean, cold relief of a door finally closed.
The cost was real.
But it was fair.
Vanessa had chosen this path the day she raised her hand against my mother.
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Now she was paying for it.
And I was finally free.