Chapter 24
Back at the Richmond estate, the afternoon sun offered no warmth against the biting winter freeze that had settled deep into the foundation of the house. The mother sat motionless at the head of the dining room table, wrapped in her heavy woolen blankets, her breathing shallow and labored in the unheated air. The front door remained unlocked from Garrett's hasty exit, allowing a cold draft to sweep through the grand hallway and chill the parlor to the bone. Her mind drifted back through the decades, recalling the countless birthdays, holidays, and quiet evenings where Craig had stood quietly in the background, making sure everything ran smoothly while she reserved all her applause, pride, and financial backing for her eldest son. She had truly believed she was acting out of wisdom, dividing her assets according to who 'needed a foundation beneath his feet,' blind to the reality that her favoritism was a slow poison destroying the very family she claimed to protect. Now, the foundation had completely collapsed under Garrett's weight, and the independent spirit she had boasted of possessing had proven to be nothing more than a helpless illusion sustained entirely by the son she had cast aside. Her eyelids grew heavy, the biting cold numbing her fingers and toes as a strange, peaceful numbness began to replace the sharp panic of her isolation. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, whispering a soft, broken apology into the empty air—not a prayer for blessings, but a quiet, desperate plea for forgiveness addressed to a room that held no answer. As the winter shadows lengthened across the polished wooden floor, the grand Richmond estate stood silent and motionless, guarding the final, freezing chapter of a matriarch who had measured her children's worth in gold and lost everything in the exchange.
