Chapter 14
I removed Victoria from every estate channel that came through our engagement.
No household instructions.
No event authority.
No security access.
No guest approvals under my name.
She retained her own life, property, and relationships.
I was not destroying her.
I was ending what she had mistaken for ownership.
She called me two weeks later.
“I understand why you ended it.”
“That’s good.”
“I still love you.”
I believed her.
That was what made it complicated.
“I love Sophie too.”
“I know.”
“She misses Noah.”
“He misses her.”
Silence.
Then Victoria asked:
“Did I ruin that too?”
“Not necessarily.”
The children’s relationship did not have to become collateral damage for ours.
But it would happen slowly.
On their terms.
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“You always make it sound simple.”
“No.”
I looked through the study window at Noah playing in the garden.
“I’m learning most things become complicated when adults refuse simple boundaries.”
Do not shove a child.
Do not move his room without his father.
Do not tell one child they need another child’s place to belong.
May you like
Simple rules.
Victoria had broken all of them trying to solve a fear nobody asked her to solve.
