Chapter 22 - AURELIA GETS RELEASED
Aurelia eventually completed her custodial sentence.
Supervised release followed.
No contact with Sorrel remained.
No work involving children’s fiduciary accounts.
Financial-employment restrictions according to sentence and licensing consequences.
She found administrative work later.
No glamorous comeback.
No destitution.
Punishment has boundaries.
Sorrel was twenty-three.
Aurelia requested mediated contact.
Sorrel said no.
At twenty-five:
Still no.
At twenty-seven:
“Yes. Once.”
I did not attend.
Her lawyer and mediator handled it.
Sorrel told me afterward.
First question:
“Why the chain?”
Aurelia answered:
“Because I wanted you to stop leaving the room when I ordered you to serve.”
Not safety.
Not miscommunication.
Control.
“Why servant?”
“Because I resented that Hadrian’s house and money existed around you before me.”
“Dad’s money?”
“Yes.”
“My trust?”
“That became part later.”
Sorrel asked:
“Did you hate me?”
Aurelia said:
“Sometimes.”
Brutal.
Sorrel appreciated honesty.
“Did you love Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Did you want me gone?”
“Yes.”
“Forever?”
Aurelia paused.
“I wanted you somewhere I did not have to compete with you every day.”
There.
Not cartoon evil.
Still monstrous in practice.
Meeting lasted thirty-six minutes.
No hug.
No forgiveness.
Sorrel did not schedule another.
May you like
She allowed one annual letter through counsel.
Nothing more.
