Chapter 13
Bernice requested mediation after criminal discovery closed.
Adria refused twice.
On the third request, she agreed.
No Callum.
No Serena.
No family audience.
Bernice entered quietly.
She looked much smaller without a ballroom around her.
“I am sorry I hit him.”
Adria waited.
“I was angry.”
“At being caught?”
Bernice flinched.
“At everything.”
“That is not an answer.”
Bernice looked down.
“The trust. Serena. The wedding. Your constant insistence that every sentimental thing needed an accounting value.”
Adria’s voice stayed calm.
“It did.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
Bernice swallowed.
Adria continued.
“Why did you think you could use Callum?”
“I didn’t think of it as using him.”
“That sentence is why we’re here.”
Bernice began crying.
“I thought security would ask questions. I thought everyone would realize there was no ring. I thought the family would keep it private.”
“And my son?”
“He would be embarrassed.”
Adria stared.
Bernice forced herself to continue.
“I thought that was temporary.”
There it was.
Temporary embarrassment.
Temporary fear.
Temporary accusation.
Adults loved temporary harm when someone else carried it.
Adria asked:
“Did you know he might remember being called a thief for the rest of his childhood?”
“No.”
“Did you care enough to consider it?”
Bernice looked away.
“No.”
The admission hurt more than denial.
Then Adria asked why Serena had been favored.
Bernice answered without pretending otherwise.
“Serena stayed.”
Adria frowned.
“She stayed near me. She came to Sunday dinners. She called. She wanted the jewelry. You always acted like family things were administrative burdens.”
“So you rewarded proximity.”
“I thought your grandmother would have.”
“She wrote a trust.”
Bernice closed her eyes.
Adria continued.
“If Eleanor wanted you to guess her feelings forever, she didn’t need a lawyer.”
Silence.
Then Bernice asked:
“Will Callum ever see me?”
Adria did not give her hope.
She did not take it away either.
“That will eventually be his decision.”
“He’s a child.”
“Which is why your access now depends on adults whose job is protecting him, not comforting you.”
May you like
Bernice nodded slowly.
For once, she accepted a rule she had not written.
