Chapter 7 - The Aftermath Across Town
While our household thrived in an atmosphere of peace and mutual respect, the dynamic across town in the high-society circles Rachel had fought so desperately to enter had completely evaporated.
Without Logan Montgomery’s wealth and social standing, Rachel found herself utterly ostracized. The elite friends who had sipped champagne at her wedding quickly vanished the moment the tabloid headlines hit the local papers—“BRIDE’S EMBEZZLEMENT SCANDAL DESTROYS MILLION-DOLLAR NEWPORT WEDDING.”
She was forced to move out of her luxury Manhattan apartment and into a cramped, nondescript studio apartment in Queens, taking a low-level administrative job at a shipping warehouse just to pay her mounting legal debts.
Our mother tried visiting me once, showing up unannounced on our front porch with a Tupperware container of homemade cookies and a tearful expression, begging for forgiveness and a pathway back into our lives.
I met her on the front porch, keeping the screen door latched.
"You watched her seat us behind the catering doors, Mom," I said quietly, looking down at the woman who had enabled Rachel’s cruelty for three decades. "You watched her mock a child’s shoes, and you sat quietly at the family table pretending you didn't see anything. That choice has consequences."
"I'm your mother," she sobbed, clutching the cookies to her chest.
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"And I am Chloe’s mother," I replied, my voice absolute and unyielding. "My job is to protect her from people who use love as a transaction. Please leave."
I closed the heavy front door, locked the deadbolt, and never looked back.
