2026-06-09 16:01:52“Emma.” I called out her name and she gave me a small smile. I guess because I hadn't picked up her call, she came to find out why I didn't.
“I know, I know you already guessed the reason why I showed up here, shamelessly.” She said, most probably so I couldn't bring up the topic but I was. I just wasn't going to excuse the fact that she showed up at my office without warning. “Why are you here?” “You're still so mean.” She looked away and then back to me. “Well, I came to see you. Is that not obvious.” “Why?” “Well, I have something I'd like for us to discuss.” . “That's why we have cell phones.” I shot at her and then realized my mistake. “I guess you realized that you've been the one who has refused to pick his call even after I called you so many times.” “I've been busy Emma… fixing the mess your mother made.” I was upset but I was trying so hard to hide it because my voice was pitching higher than usual.” “That's exactly why I'm here. I think that we need to talk.” “I have nothing to talk about with you…” “I'm trying to help you.” Emma cut me off. “It's about Victoria, something that would be totally useful to you in your search for revenge.” “And who told you that I was here for revenge?” I asked her honestly, trying to find out what she thinks. “I didn't say that to you so why do you think so?” “Well, I can see the look in your eyes. It's obvious that you want to hurt my mother so bad.” She paused. “And me too. I wouldn't blame you.” She took two steps towards me. “That's why I'm so eager to get on your good books.” “Really?” “Yes.” She responded. I thought about what Henry said. It was not a bad idea but I wished I could do something else apart from Indulging Emma. She had really hurt me when we were together and when I left the Pierce house, I swore that I didn't want to have anything to do with them anymore, especially not with Emma. Thinking deeply about it, this might actually be a very big mistake. If Victoria finds out that I was speaking with Emma even after her previous warning, she might do worse things than the ones she did before. “I'll talk to you just for 5 minutes, Emma. Only five minutes, then you leave. Follow me to the car.” I wish she wouldn't follow me so closely but she did and I saw people stare at us like we were performing a kind of magic. I didn't like it but I guess I was stuck with her. “Don't walk too close to me.” I told her but she sighed. Whenever she did that, it just meant that she wasn't going to listen. I dated Emma for some years so I knew how to handle her, sometimes. “It doesn't matter what people think?” It sounded like a joke coming from her. The driver was already waiting for me at the car park. I had to ask him to wait outside the car while I and Emma discuss. “We're here so go on.” She cleared her throat like whatever she was going to say would make sense. I still decided to listen to her. “I know that you are very busy so I can't waste your time, I can help you get back to Victoria. She trusts me.” “Why?” I asked a simple question and it seemed to throw her off balance. “What do you mean by why? I'm only trying to help you. Don't you need help?” “No, not from someone like you.” She stopped talking and her eyes started to blink so many times. I knew that what I had said had hurt her. It was always like this. “Really? Is that how insignificant I am to you?” She asked me, probably thinking I'd feel guilty. “Well, you must have seen me as insignificant for you to throw me like trash even when I pleaded with you.” I was surprised I kept bringing up the past. In fact, I didn't think I still remembered my past but why was I being verbal about it. “You need to forgive me..” “No. I'll forgive you when I want to forgive you. You don't tell me when to forgive you. You don't have the right.” I shot at her. It was fast and sudden. “I'm sorry and I'm trying to make up by giving you all the information you need.” “Alright..what should I know?” She said nothing but only glared at me. She wasn't prepared yet but here she was asking for forgiveness. Sometimes, I wonder what really made me fall for Emma in the first place. “Well, I haven't yet gotten any information but I will.. “ “I'd like to leave now, if you don't mind.” “Can I go with you?” She asked me. “I mean Lily would be glad to see that I showed after promising her that I'll come again.” “You saw her a few days ago, Emma.” “I know but..” “Thay girl right there is the most important person in my life and I would be glad if you'd let her be. Don't get her involved in this pity party you are throwing here.” Emma was speechless for a while, maybe trying to counter what I said but she didn't. What else could she say? “Tell her I asked about her. Goodbye.” She responded before stepping out. She looked defeated, the look I lived for. I asked my driver to come inside and soon we were driving on the bust street. Inside the company, everything seemed easy and organized but outside here, it all seemed disorganised and difficult. The outside world reminded me of the days I had to struggle to eat even though I lived with rich people. The outside world reminded me that the world could be heartless and I should still have a bit of kindness even when the world didn't deserve it
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chapter 118
The Sarah Blackwell Foundation launch had been planned for months, long before the verdict, long before Daniel's sentencing, long before any of us had known exactly what shape the trial's ending would take. Henry had insisted on that timeline early on, back when the whole idea had still been little more than a conversation in the study — that the Foundation should never appear to be a reaction to the trial, something conjured up in its aftermath to manage public perception, but something built carefully and deliberately alongside it, so that when it finally opened its doors, it could stand entirely on its own."If we launch it the week of the verdict," Henry had told me back then, "it will read as strategy. If we launch it on its own timeline, regardless of what the trial is doing, it will read as what it actually is."I had not fully understood, at the time, how much that distinction would matter. I understood it now, standing in the small courtyard behind the Bla
chapter 117
Lily found me in the garden that evening, where I had gone to watch the last of the daylight fade behind the trees, and climbed up onto the bench beside me with her rabbit tucked under one arm, the same way she had climbed up onto so many benches, over so many difficult evenings, across this entire strange, extraordinary year."Henry told me about Daniel," she said. "Eight years. That's a really long time.""It is," I agreed."Longer than I've been alive," Lily observed, working through the maths with visible concentration. "Longer than I've been alive twice, almost.""Almost," I agreed again.She was quiet for a moment, swinging her feet where they did not quite reach the ground from the bench."Do you feel bad for him?" she asked. "Even though he was one of the bad people?"I considered the question carefully, the way I had learned to consider most of Lily's questions, understanding that she rarely asked something simp
chapter 116
"No," Emma agreed. "It's actually the only thing I have that I'm proud of, if I'm being completely honest. Isn't that strange? Everything I used to think mattered — the money, the status, the way I looked in a room — none of it feels like it means anything now. The thing I'm actually proud of is standing in a witness box and telling twelve strangers the truth, even though it cost me everything."I thought about that for a long moment, about the particular strange arc of Emma Clarke's story — the woman who had once told me, cruelly and deliberately, that I would never be enough, who had married into wealth and comfort and lost herself, slowly, inside the performance of it, only to find, at the very end of all of it, that the truest thing she had ever done was the thing that cost her the most."What are you going to do," I asked. "Now that it's actually over.""I don't know yet," Emma admitted. "I think I need some time before I figure that out. I've spent s
chapter 115
The press storm did not wait for morning.By the time I woke, barely six hours after finally falling asleep the night of the verdict, my phone had already accumulated more notifications than I had the patience to scroll through — messages from Gerald, from Patricia, from numbers I did not recognise claiming to represent one outlet or another, and beneath all of it, a headline from Sandra Wealth's own publication that Henry had apparently forwarded sometime after midnight with no comment attached, only the link itself.VICTORIA PIERCE CONVICTED: THE FULL STORY OF SARAH BLACKWELL, TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING.I read it standing in my bedroom in the grey early light, still in the clothes I had fallen asleep in the night before, and found that Sandra had done exactly what she had promised, months ago, in that meeting room — told the complete story, without flattering any version of it, including the parts that complicated rather than simplified my own place in it. She had included Victoria
chapter 114
We left the courthouse into a wall of noise unlike anything I had experienced through the entire trial — cameras flashing in a continuous, overlapping strobe, questions shouted from every direction, the particular frenzy of a story reaching its climax in real time in front of a crowd that had been waiting for exactly this moment.I did not answer any of it, the same as I had not answered anything through the previous two weeks, but I found, walking through it this time, that I did not feel the same tight, defensive bracing I had felt on every previous day. Something in me had loosened, finally, released by the weight of the verdict, and I walked through that crowd of shouted questions and flashing cameras with something that felt, for the first time in longer than I could remember, almost like peace.Brandon's team got us to the car quickly, and Henry drove, and Yemi sat pressed close beside me in the back seat, her head resting against my shoulder, and none of us
chapter 113
I did not look at Victoria. I could not, in that first instant, tear my eyes away from the jury foreperson, from the plain, steady certainty in her voice, as though looking away too quickly might somehow unmake what had just been said."On the second count," Judge Adeyemi continued, her voice unwavering, "manslaughter, in the matter of James Blackwell — how do you find?""Guilty," the foreperson said."On the third count, manslaughter, in the matter of Nora Blackwell — how do you find?""Guilty," the foreperson said, for the third time, and I felt something in my chest finally, fully release, a year of held breath escaping all at once, and beside me I heard Yemi make a small sound that was not quite a sob but came close to one, and felt Henry's hand come to rest briefly, firmly, on my shoulder.I turned, finally, to look at Victoria.She had not moved.She stood exactly where she had stood when the verdict began, her pos
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