Chapter 8
That night,
after Sophie had fallen asleep,
Evelyn finally broke the silver seal on the envelope.
The candlelight flickered,
casting long shadows across the cozy wooden living room.
She smoothed out the crisp paper,
recognizing the sharp,
authoritarian handwriting of her former father-in-law.
The man who had once looked down his nose at her,
the man who deemed her unworthy of his family name,
had written to her.
The words on the page were not angry,
nor were they demanding,
which made them even more terrifying.
Instead,
they leaked a desperate,
hollow vulnerability that she never thought possible from him.
The letter explained that the great family empire was crumbling from within,
shattered by greed,
betrayal,
and endless lawsuits between the relatives.
The grand mansion,
once filled with glittering parties,
was now a silent fortress of misery and debt.
But the true reason for the letter lay at the very bottom of the page,
written in a shaky,
unsteady hand.
The patriarch was dying,
and he wanted to see Sophie one last time before his time ran out.
Evelyn let out a long,
May you like
shuddering breath,
feeling the immense weight of the past colliding with her hard-won freedom.
