Seraphina:
I hadn’t planned to give her that gift.
The locket had been sitting in my drawer for years, untouched, unwanted, heavy with memories I never let myself unpack. I told myself it was meaningless. Just metal. Just a trinket.
I told myself that it would be something that I threw away…
But when I saw her standing there, tired, pale, still standing despite everything, I realized something I hated admitting.
She had already won.
Not by scheming.
Not by seducing.
Not by destroying anyone.
She survived.
Everything that I had thrown in her way, somehow, she managed to survive.
And that was something I understood better than I liked.
I didn’t wait for gratitude. I didn’t want it. I turned and walked away before my resolve cracked.
I didn’t stop until I reached the balcony.
T
