Chapter 13 - Genevieve's Choice
My mother refused a public-relations strategy.
“No excuses,” she told her attorneys.
She admitted authorizing the original deception.
She admitted hiding Rosalind's letters.
She admitted helping create the false separation agreement.
She also agreed to testify against Harrison regarding the broader fraud.
The woman who had spent her life protecting the Hawthorne name was about to damage it publicly to tell the truth.
At her hearing, she saw Rosalind.
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
Rosalind answered quietly.
“Good.”
Genevieve nodded.
“But I am sorry.”
Rosalind looked at her for a long time.
“Then spend the rest of your life proving that apology means something.”
Genevieve accepted responsibility.
There were legal consequences.
There should have been.
But cooperation and the distinctions between her conduct and Harrison's larger financial crimes mattered.
I didn't celebrate her punishment.
I didn't try to erase it either.
Accountability wasn't revenge.
It was simply the bill that eventually arrived when lies had been allowed to compound for six years.
Outside court, reporters surrounded me.
“Mr. Hawthorne, do you forgive your mother?”
I answered carefully.
“Forgiveness is private. Accountability is not.”
That quote spread everywhere.
But the viral headline wasn't the important part.
That evening, I went home.
Home.
Not the penthouse.
The guesthouse had become something else.
Rosalind was cooking.
Elliot was coloring.
Oliver was asleep on the couch.
I realized I no longer wanted to return to my old life.
Then Rosalind looked at me.
“Christopher, we need to talk about us.”
May you like
For some reason, that frightened me more than any courtroom had.
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