His Lesson Killed My Mother Now He Will Pay Chapter 27
After the hearing, I had just come down the courthouse steps when Graham called out.
“Nora.”
He hurried over, a dark blue velvet box resting in his open palm.
When he lifted the lid, I saw the engagement ring I had pawned.
“I looked for it for a long time,” he said, his voice rough. “The pawnshop had already sold it. I paid three times the price to buy it back.”
I didn’t take it.
“It already paid for my mother’s funeral. That was the best use it could have ever had.”
Graham’s hand tightened around the box until his knuckles went white.
“What about us?”
I looked at him calmly.
“Seven years, Nora.” He started counting, his words rushing out. “We built a business together. We picked out the apartment. We took all those photos. When you had a fever, I stayed up with you all night. On Elena’s birthdays, I was there, blowing out the candles with her.”
A desperate glimmer appeared in his eyes.
“Does none of that count?”
“It counts.”
His breath caught, as if he’d just grabbed hold of the last rope hanging over a cliff.
I looked at him and said, each word precise, “And because it counts, I know you were capable of being good to me. It’s just that every single time you had to choose, you chose the option that left me with nothing.”
His eyes turned red.
“I’ve lost the foundation, my position, the family trust… and I’ve lost you.” His voice shook. “What else do I have to lose before it’s enough?”
I took the ring box from his hand.
Hope flared in his eyes for a fraction of a second.
Then I turned and handed it to the director of the Elena Reyes Disaster Emergency Evacuation Fund, who was waiting nearby.
“Auction it,” I said. “Every dollar goes to the fund.”
The director closed the lid.
The last, cold glint of the diamond disappeared.
Graham stood motionless on the courthouse steps.
I didn’t look back.
I just walked away.