Chapter 23 - CLARICE’S DEATH
Clarice lived to eighty-five.
She never returned to family governance.
Never saw Cormac privately.
Her later years were quieter.
Therapy.
Limited relationship with Stetson.
No redemption tour.
No public foundation named after child safety.
Good.
She died after complications from pneumonia.
No mystery.
Her estate paid remaining restitution first.
Then lawful assets distributed.
Cormac received:
A watch that belonged to Elias.
A box of family photographs.
And one note.
I watched him read it.
You were four years old. I treated your dependence as weakness and then used it against you.
He stopped.
Then continued.
Nothing about the trust made me put you in that cage. I did that because I wanted obedience.
Cormac cried.
Kept Elias’s watch.
Kept the photos.
May you like
Shredded the note months later.
Paper became paper.
