Page 148 of The Strength Of A Woman

I mull over his words.For sure, they’ll resent him and hate me.

“They’ve never been on your side,” he reminds me.

“I know that.”

A shudder goes through me, and it has nothing to do with the temperature in the room.

“All right,” he murmurs. “Go get some rest now. I’ll be downstairs for a while with my men.”

I nod without turning, trying to hide how overpowered I am by some old emotions.

And then listen to his footsteps as they trail across the floor and move down the stairs.

Once he’s gone, I let my emotions flow freely, experiencing deep sadness.

Sadness I never thought I’d still harbor.

It’s been a long road from that moment of dark desperation when I knew things were wrong in my life.

When everyone close to me abandoned me.

When I couldn’t seem to find a way to fix things for myself.

When, other than Nona, who was suffering in silence, no one had cared about what would happen to me.

You’d think that all this time I’ve been away, someone in my family would think about what happened, maybe reconsider things, and have a moment of regret.

None of that happened.

Their lives unfolded as they always had.

Their thoughts never changed.

They never considered that I might not have deserved this.

They had a job to do.

Be a parent to my mother.

Teach her how to be my mother.

And they failed.

And even when life pointed to all the things they’d done wrong, they still glanced away, unfazed.

Still having a lump of tension in my throat, I turn around and go through the motions, trying to get to sleep.

An hour later, I lie on the bed, staring at the ceiling, eyes blank, anxious and angry as I’ve never been before.

It’s probably the fact that I’m so close to a resolution, and regardless of what happens tomorrow, this story won’t go away.

It will stay with me forever.

No length of time spent with Callum can erase the memories of two decades spent with them.

I twist and turn for another half an hour before I climb out of bed, put my slippers on, and head to the door, wearing only my pajamas. Shorts and a camisole.

Without turning on the light, I find my way to Callum’s room, push the door open, and slip in like a ghost.