Chapter 21 - RAYMOND’S APOLOGY
Raymond apologized last.
Of course.
His first draft arrived through counsel.
Camilla,
I regret the cruel comment I made during an emotionally charged evening.
No.
Then:
I should not have laughed after Travis struck you.
Better.
Then:
I called you an orphan because I believed Marcello had abandoned the alliance and left you exposed.
Worse.
He still framed cruelty as strategic commentary.
I did not answer.
Months later, a handwritten letter arrived.
Camilla,
I laughed because I thought your father was gone from the room and from the balance of power.
That sentence ashamed me after I wrote it.
I treated your vulnerability as something useful.
I was wrong.
I also encouraged Travis to believe that marriage entitled him to a larger say over your inherited authority than you wanted to give.
That was wrong too.
You owe me no reply.
Better.
I kept the letter.
May you like
Not as forgiveness.
As evidence that an old man had finally written a sentence without making himself the hero.
