“I regret believing that humility required me to remain silent. Kindness does not require self-erasure, and privacy does not give another person permission to rewrite your life.”
Some people believed she had been too firm.
Others believed Blake had simply faced the natural results of his own decisions.
But people who had lived through similar experiences understood the deeper truth.
Blake did not lose Arden when she walked down the ballroom staircase.
He lost her each time he allowed his mother to speak to her with disrespect.
He lost her every night he chose secrecy instead of honesty.
He lost her when he treated her trust as something he could use.
Most of all, he lost her when he believed a woman without visible wealth deserved less respect than a woman with influence.
The greatest revelation of the evening was not that Arden Fairchild controlled a powerful company.
It was that Blake needed to discover her fortune before he could recognize her worth.
