Chapter 10 - FIONA TURNS
Fiona agreed to cooperate.
Not because she became good.
Because Gordon betrayed her too.
She handed over messages.
Contracts.
Clinic communications.
A hidden audio recording.
Gordon:
If Elena’s child is Julian’s, delay confirmation until after closing.
Fiona:
She hasn’t even delivered yet.
Gordon:
Then keep her away.
Fiona:
And if Julian finds out?
Gordon:
By then he’ll have too much to lose.
That was the plan.
Lock Julian into marriage.
Lock Vance into financing.
Then truth becomes expensive.
Coercion by sunk cost.
Sophisticated.
Cruel.
Fiona cried while the recording played.
I watched her.
Hard to pity someone who threw wine in your face.
Still, truth is not required to flatter anger.
She was both perpetrator and victim.
Then Fiona admitted she had personally instructed Julian’s assistant to block my calls.
Again.
Her choice.
She had personally returned the certified letter.
Her choice.
She had personally mocked me.
Her choice.
No erasure.
She said:
“I wanted your life.”
I asked:
“Why?”
“Because you had him before I did.”
“That’s not a reason.”
“It was to me.”
There it was.
Envy.
Then:
“And because my father said you were weak.”
I laughed.
“What did weakness have to do with it?”
“He said weak people are easiest to replace.”
That sentence told me everything about Gordon’s family.
Fiona had been raised inside a hierarchy where value equaled leverage.
No wonder she acted like cruelty was status.
Still.
Adults choose what they continue.
She was starting to choose differently.
May you like
Late.
But real.
