Chapter 13: The Quiet Accounting
In the months that followed, I ordered a full accounting of every transfer, every expenditure, every year of silent subsidy.
The final number was larger than even I had realized. Hundreds of thousands of dollars had flowed through Garrick’s accounts and into Miriam’s lifestyle without a single expression of genuine thanks—only the repeated insistence that I should be grateful for being allowed to stay. I did not seek repayment. The money had been the price of an education I would never forget. I closed the accounts that had funded them and redirected the resources into new investments under structures that required no performance of humility from anyone.
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I returned to the mansion only long enough to oversee a careful emptying of the rooms. Personal items that belonged to Garrick and Miriam were packed and shipped to a storage unit in their names. Everything else remained. I had the family portrait taken down and placed in storage as well. In its place I hung nothing for a while. The empty wall felt honest.
At night I walked the halls without turning on every light. The house no longer felt like a stage where I had been required to play a grateful supporting role. It felt like a building I had paid for, designed, and finally reclaimed.
