Not transformed.
Not suddenly apologetic.
Just smaller.
She turned toward Victor.
“I loved you.”
Victor said nothing.
Then she looked at me.
“You chose him over your own mother.”
I had imagined that moment many times.
I had prepared angry answers.
Clever answers.
Even cruel ones.
But when it finally happened, I only said:
“I chose the person who needed me.”
For once, Mom had nothing to say.
Afterward, Victor and I stepped outside into the warm June sunlight.
He was walking with a cane now.
Recovery had taken longer than expected, but he was independent again.
As we waited for Natalie at the curb, I asked:
“So what happens to the $3.2 million?”
Victor smiled.
“That number is old.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“How old?”
“Very.”
During the investigation, Halberd Freight Systems had received a new private valuation.
Victor’s shares were now worth slightly more than **$5 million**.
I stopped walking.
“You let me think it was three-point-two?”
“The ring says three-point-two.”
“You’re impossible.”
Victor smiled.
“I recovered. I’m allowed to be annoying.”
The trust remained intact.
Victor didn’t hand me millions of dollars.
And I didn’t want him to.
Instead, he worked with Natalie to rewrite his estate plan so every instruction was absolutely clear.
I remained the primary beneficiary.
