He Deceived Me So I Destroyed His Family’s Legacy Chapter 35
She did not read from the paper she had prepared.
“I used to think that if I was good, Julian might hurt me less.”
“Later, I learned that cruel people don’t stop just because you obey.”
“They only decide you can endure more.”
She looked at Adrian.
“It wasn’t that you didn’t see what was happening.”
“You just decided that Julian mattered more than I did. That the Blackwood family’s reputation mattered more than my life.”
“But today, this court will tell you that I am a person, too.”
When she finished, she slowly walked back to my side.
The doctor pulled out a chair for her.
When she sat down, her palms were cold with sweat.
I took her hand.
She smiled at me.
Not to please anyone.
Only because she had finally said everything she came to say.
After the sentence was handed down, the bailiffs led Adrian away.
At the door, he turned back.
“Nora.”
I looked at him.
“If I get out someday, will you still be in Cold Spring?”
“I don’t know.”
A final glimmer of hope rose in his eyes.
And I said calmly, “But that has nothing to do with you.”
The bailiff gave a light tug on his handcuffs.
He stumbled and turned away.
This time, he finally understood.
It was not a question of whether I would wait for him.
It was that from this day forward, there would never again be a place for him in my life.
Outside the courthouse, it was raining.
Reporters crowded the steps.
Lily and I did not leave by the side door.
We walked straight through the crowd, one step at a time.
Those cameras had once chased only Blackwood weddings and Blackwood wealth.
Now they recorded the final collapse of a fallen dynasty.