I Let Her Ruin Herself Chapter 33
This time, she didn’t ask for money. She didn’t say she was willing to be my secret lover.
“I have nothing left. Derek ruined me, and that psycho ruined me, too. Now even my mom and my own daughters don’t want me.”
I pulled out a chair and sat down.
“They didn’t abandon you. you left them.”
“I can change.”
“You want to change now because there’s no one left for you to use.”
The color drained from Taylor’s face.
“In my last life, I wronged you. But I already did eight years in prison. Isn’t that enough?”
Hannah didn’t understand what she meant by *my last life*. She turned to look at me.
I took her hand but didn’t explain.
“You went to prison because in this life, you solicited a knife attack and committed extortion,” I said. “That wasn’t repayment for debts from another life.”
“In the last life, I stepped in front of knives for you, built your career, and died at your feet. In this life, I didn’t actively harm you. I simply stopped saving you.”
Taylor shook her head, crying.
“If you had just walked me to school that day, none of this would have happened.”
“Then Derek would have stabbed me, and my knee would have been shattered.”
I looked at her.
“Why should my body and my life be the price for yours?”
She had no answer.
Back when we were eighteen, Carol also thought it was my job to protect Taylor.
But my life had never existed just to absorb harm on her behalf.
“Your daughters received help through the proper review process. That support belongs to them, not to you.”
“You may not use them to approach the program, and you may not ask the staff for their information.”
“After today, don’t come looking for me again.”
Hannah and I stood and left.
Behind us came the sound of Taylor’s muffled sobs.
At last, she regretted it.
But that regret had arrived two lifetimes too late.