Their Favoritism Resulted In A Cruel Outcome Chapter 28
“Willa truly treated you like a sister.”
“You’re the one who destroyed this family.”
The loudspeaker ordered the families to leave.
Blair opened her mouth, but no more words came out.
I stood outside the observation room and watched her. Once, I had hated her for taking my family, my wedding, and my life. Now, she was no longer worth any feeling from me at all.
Of course Blair was guilty.
But if my father and brothers had not yielded, if Connor had not handed over his power, a woman who had only just returned to Charleston could never have forged a governor’s order and locked all the women of the family in a detention center.
Her malice needed keys.
And the people who claimed to love me were the ones who put those keys in her hands.
The executions took place on different dates.
Before Connor was led into the execution chamber, he was still gripping the final photograph in the album.
His eyes moved past the glass and settled where I stood. It seemed he could see me.
His lips moved faintly.
What he said was:
“I’m sorry.”
I gave no answer.
In the heavy fog outside the prison, a long road appeared.
My grandmother stood at its entrance, waiting for me.
My mother and sisters-in-law were there, too.
The moment Molly saw me, she ran over, waving a red lollipop.
“Aunt Willa, what took you so long?”
I crouched down and wiped the sticky sugar from the corner of her mouth.
“Some things had to wait for an answer.”
“Did all the bad people pay for what they did?”
“Yes.”
“Then can we go home now?”
I paused.
My grandmother came over and took her other hand.
“Of course.”
“Only this time, we’ll choose a different home.”
It wasn’t the Worthington estate with its iron gates and oil portraits.
There was no fight over who belonged more, the biological daughter or the adopted one.
No engagement to the governor’s son.
And no one left to tell us that a little harm didn’t matter.
Molly ran ahead happily.
My sisters-in-law called after her to slow down.
The light in Rachel’s arms had become a plump white baby, clutching at her collar and laughing.
My mother slipped her arm through my grandmother’s and looked back at me.
“Willa.”
“It’s time.”
I looked back at Charleston one last time.
The wedding ribbons at the Worthington house had long since been taken down.
The seating chart in the north wing was soaked through by rain, the names no longer legible.
I had lived there for twenty-six years.
People had loved me there. I had been truly happy there, too.
Those memories were not all false.
But the love from the past could not erase the harm that came later.
I no longer looked for excuses on their behalf.
And I no longer let old tenderness trap the self who had already died.
I turned and caught up with my grandmother and the others.
The city behind us grew farther and farther away. There were no hydrangeas along the road, only small wildflowers.
Molly took my hand.
“In your next life, do you still want to get married?”
I thought about it, then smiled and shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
“Then what do you want to do?”
I lifted my eyes toward the end of the road.
Morning light was just breaking, and there was still a long way ahead.
“I want to be myself first.”
Not the Worthington family’s adopted daughter.
Not the governor’s son’s fiancée.
And not the Willa everyone thought was stable, sensible, and would never leave.
Just Willa.
If there is another life, I’ll read the books I want to read and go to the places I want to go.
I’ll go to Maine to see the winter sea, and I’ll go to Arizona to watch the desert sunset.
I won’t need to wait for anyone to take me.
And I won’t place my future in anyone else’s hands.
My grandmother smiled and nodded.
“Good.”
“Go wherever you want.”
Morning light fell over us.
The ash, the wounds, and the wedding dress slowly disappeared.
For the first time, I no longer felt cold.
Together, we walked into the light.