2026-06-10 16:18:53I decided that I'd follow Henry's advice. Emma was thinking that she was smarter than me maybe but she had no clue what was going to happen.
I wanted to call her back but decided against it. I didn't want to rush anything right now. I knew I should probably go home and think about it before going in fully. I was already super excited to see Lily. I haven't seen her for like 8 hours since last night. She was still sleeping when I woke up to prepare for work. Just like I suspected she was waiting for me at the garage with a book in her hand. “Brother. Where have you been?” She was literally shouting at the tip of her voice. I heard her but didn't answer until I got down from the car. She in fact came to meet me. “Aren't you going to talk to me?” Her voice was now calmer behind me as I shut the door of the car. “Of course, I will.” I bent to her level. “What are you doing here?” “I was just waiting for you. I miss you.” She spread out her arms for a hug. It was a warm hug exactly what I needed at the moment. “I miss you too.” I was tired but I needed to manage through this night because Lily was asking me to make dinner for her. “Is Mrs. Pack home?” I asked. “She is but I want to eat your food. It's been a while too.” She said and I agreed. It has truly been a while since I made food for Lily and I wanted to. The first day I attempted to do it to impress her, she couldn't believe that I had made that meal. I was a good cook because at the Pierce home, I was the one who handled everything in the kitchen. I cooked, I prepped the meal, I washed the dishes and still they treated me like trash. I guess they never thought I'd break through from that pain they cursed me. Thinking about it, what audacity did that family have that made them mistreat me but still made me do their dishes. I mean that was literally a dangerous game they played. I could have decided to poison them or do something else. I didn't regret my actions. At that time, I just wanted freedom. I wanted to leave no matter what so I kept doing everything they asked me to do. “Alright. What do you want to eat?” I asked, coming back to reality. “Well, stir fry pasta will do the trick.” Lily responded. Hand in hand, we walked to the kitchen where Mrs Park was. “Good evening, Sir.” She greeted me. I told her so many times not to call me since she was obviously older than me but she never for once listened to me. Making stir fry was never a difficult thing to make. I learnt it very early even when my mother was still alive. It was just one food but to me, it was the best food I'd ever eaten. When I missed my mum or thought of her, I thought of stir fry spag. Maybe that is what I should do. Mrs. Park made her way to me. She collected my laptop bag and offered to go drop it in my room since I was taking over her job for today. I didn't want to bother her but she really didn't seem bothered anyways. She seemed happy that I was going to relieve some kind of stress for her. I smiled. I was always happy to rest, I just hoped that Lily wouldn't ask so many questions this time. “Lily, what are we starting with?” She asked and I looked at her. “What do you mean by we?” She was still thinking when I answered my own question. “There's nothing like We. I'll be here making the food while you remain there.” I pointed at the other side of the counter. “..watching me.” “But..” She was about to protest. “Are you going to abide by my rules or should I let Mrs. Pack know that she'll be the one making dinner tonight?” She couldn't argue anymore. I mean what else could she say to add to mine. I was happy she listened and did not try to act tough. I was too tired for that. “Qre you okay?” She asked, suddenly. I was a bit taken back when I heard her ask me that. “Because I asked you to stay over there?” “No.. because you look sad.” “Tired.” I corrected it. “That's understandable. Maybe a date could solve that.” I looked up at her again. A date? Oh no. I just hoped Emma wasn't feeding her things, I just hope so. “Baby. I'm not planning on going on any dates with Emma..” “Aunt Emma? No.. I'm talking about Aunt Yemi.” She had a pretty smile on her face. “You mean she told you about it?” “No, I asked her. You could say I disturbed her till she split the milk.” I didn't stop glaring at this little stubborn lady in front of me. I couldn't just explain how she made people do things. She always thought herself to be a boss and truly she had proven it to me that she was the boss. “Why were you interested in our conversation?” I asked, going back to cutting my already wasted carrot trying so hard to pretend that I wasn't being monitored by my own niece. It seemed I wasn't even asking the proper questions. “How do you know what a date means? “Well, a classmate of mine mentioned it. He said his parents go on lots of dates so I asked him what it meant.” “So I'm guessing Yemi never said it was a date. You only assumed.” “Yes, a date is a good thing according to Marcel and because he talks about it, I'd like to go on a date soon too.” “Well, that won't be happening anytime soon.” I whispered loud enough so she could hear me but I looked at her, she was smiling. “She's really very nice and pretty. She was so pretty in that purple dress.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
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
You may also like
On Guard: War and Legacy
ICITY80 viewsHE BROKE ME FIRST
DMARTIN337.4K viewsThe Runaway is a Politician's Daughter
MokouFriedChicken12.5K viewsFROM STREETS TO SUITES
ThePhenomenalScribe4.3K viewsDark Days Under a Black Sun
Desmond Baiden 2.1K viewsThe Ultimate Return of Carlos
Ayomiposi4.4K viewsA Dynasty of Deceit
Michael A.O1.4K viewsEve Of A Thousand Wakes
Kaiser Ken7.8K views