Chapter 10: The Vacating
They left the mansion on a gray Thursday morning.
Elena’s team was present to document the condition of the property and to ensure nothing that belonged to the trust was removed. I stayed away. There was no version of that morning in which my presence would have served anything other than spectacle, and I had no interest in spectacle.
The report arrived that afternoon. Miriam had walked out with her personal jewelry and clothing, her face set like stone. Garrick had followed with two suitcases and the stunned expression of a man who had finally run out of arguments. The staff—most of whom had been paid through accounts I controlled—had already been reassigned or given generous severance. By evening the house stood empty for the first time since construction ended.
I drove there after dark.
The gates opened to my code. The front door responded to the key I had never surrendered. Inside, the chandelier was dark. The marble floors stretched clean and silent. I walked through each room without turning on the lights, letting the moonlight from the tall windows guide me. In the foyer I stopped at the exact place where my handbag had hit the floor, where Garrick’s hand had connected with my face, where Miriam had smiled in triumph.
I stood there for a long time.
May you like
Then I turned on a single lamp, sat on the bottom step of the staircase I had designed, and allowed myself one full breath in the house that had always been mine.
No one could tell me to leave it again.
