Vows Beneath The Moon Clown Chapter 10
Two years later, Veronica’s case reached its conclusion.
She was sentenced for embezzlement and forging evidence.
Adrian’s forged authorization case also received a ruling.
He paid me compensation.
It was not much.
But the sentence in the judgment that said “violation of Ava’s reputational rights” mattered more than any amount of money.
I used half the compensation for my father’s treatment and donated the other half to an organization that truly helped trauma survivors.
In the donation note, I wrote only four words:
May they be treated kindly.
Later, Adrian sent me a letter.
It was thick.
I did not open it.
I returned it exactly as it was.
Lucia Bennett said I was hard-hearted.
I said, “It’s not that. I just finally don’t want to hear his explanations anymore.”
Some people’s explanations are only late-arriving self-pity.
I no longer needed them.
That winter, I took the silver medal to a silversmith to be polished.
The silversmith asked, “Do you still want anything engraved?”
I thought for a moment and said, “No.”
Some things no longer need to be entrusted to anyone else.
It is enough that I wear it myself.
Sunlight fell across the counter, and the silver gave off a warm, gentle glow.
I lowered my head and looked at it. Suddenly, I remembered what my mother had said years ago.
She said, safety is enough.
Yes.
After all these years of turmoil, I finally understood.
Not being deceived, not being betrayed, not spending yourself empty inside a marriage with no visible end.
That is the greatest safety of all.