Chapter 24 - SABRINA’S APOLOGY
Sabrina waited until Grace was thirty-two.
She requested one meeting.
Grace agreed.
Public mediator’s office.
I did not attend.
Bella did not.
Connor did not.
Grace told me afterward.
First question:
“Why did you say dogs?”
Sabrina cried.
“I wanted to humiliate you.”
“Why?”
“Because I was jealous of Andrew.”
Grace had not expected that.
Sabrina explained.
Andrew controlled the protected media block.
He criticized her work.
Sponsors loved Grace’s spontaneous expressions more than Bella’s rehearsed performances.
After Andrew died, Sabrina felt she finally had room to prove he had been wrong.
She turned Grace into evidence.
Cruel evidence.
“Did you hate me?”
“No.”
“Did you like me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why?”
“Because I stopped seeing you as a niece when the camera was on.”
There.
Perhaps the truest answer.
Grace asked:
“Did you think Mom would leave me with you after the haircut?”
“No.”
“Then what was the plan?”
“Make the footage. Make Emma furious. Push her to withdraw you from family media. I believed that would move Andrew’s branch control away.”
“But it wouldn’t.”
“No.”
“You didn’t read Dad’s trust.”
Sabrina laughed bitterly.
“I read the parts I wanted.”
Family history in one sentence.
The meeting lasted forty-two minutes.
At the end Sabrina asked:
“Can I hug you?”
Grace said no.
Sabrina nodded.
Good.
May you like
Grace never scheduled another.
Closure does not require repetition.
