Chapter 8 - VICTORIA ASHFORD APOLOGIZES
Thomas survived.
He was charged with kidnapping, assault, weapons offenses and several crimes connected to the old Carter organization.
Samuel Ashford's reputation collapsed when the ledger became evidence in a federal investigation.
Victoria lost nearly everything socially.
Not financially.
People like Victoria rarely lose everything financially.
Three months later, she asked to meet me.
Same hotel.
Same ballroom.
Empty this time.
She stood where she'd humiliated me.
“I owe you an apology.”
“Yes.”
She blinked.
Perhaps she'd expected me to make it easier.
I didn't.
“What I did was cruel.”
“Yes.”
“I didn't know who you were.”
That annoyed me.
“What does that have to do with it?”
She stopped.
I stepped closer.
“If I'd been exactly who you thought I was—a poor woman in an ugly old dress—would it have been okay?”
“No.”
“Then don't apologize because you discovered my mother mattered to Daniel Carter.”
Victoria's eyes lowered.
“Apologize because I mattered before you knew that.”
Silence.
Then she looked at me.
“You're right.”
And finally:
“I'm sorry, Emma.”
I believed her.
I didn't become her friend.
Forgiveness doesn't require brunch.
But when she later established an employment fund for service workers who'd lost jobs after the Ashford collapse, she asked me to review its policies.
I did.
People can become better.
May you like
They just don't get to demand applause for beginning.
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