Chapter 258
Chapter 258:
Shards of blue and white exploded across the room. Eliza flinched, instinctively leaning into Dallas. Dallas didn’t move a muscle.
“I hate you all!” Anson screamed. “You are all whores for money!” He turned and stormed out through the French doors into the garden.
The room rang in the wake of his outburst.
Eliza stood up. Her heart was hammering, but her mind was clear.
“I need to talk to him,” she said. “One last time p>
Dallas caught her wrist. “Eliza. No p>
“I need to do this, Dallas.” She looked down at him. “To end it. He needs to hear it from me — not a lawyer p>
𝖯𝗼pul𝘢𝗋 ѕ𝘵𝘰𝘳𝗂𝘦𝘀 𝘰𝘯 galո𝗈𝘃e𝗅𝗌.с𝗈𝗆
Dallas glanced at the garden door, then back at her face. He saw the resolve there. Slowly, he released her wrist.
“Five minutes,” he said. “If you’re not back, I come out swinging p>
Eliza nodded. She walked to the doors and stepped out into the cool evening air.
Behind her, Edward signed the contract with a trembling hand.
“I’m sorry, Dallas,” he said, staring at his own signature. “He is… unwell p>
“He is broken,” Dallas said, watching Eliza’s retreating figure through the glass. “But he will heal. If you keep him away p>
The garden was steeped in shadow, the sun dipping below the horizon. Anson sat on the old wooden swing set at the far end of the lawn — the same swing he used to push her on when she was ten, when she first arrived, scared and lonely.
His head was in his hands. His shoulders were shaking.
Eliza approached slowly. The grass muffled her footsteps.
“Anson p>
He looked up. His eyes were red, his face streaked with tears. But beneath the grief, there was a hard, glittering edge that hadn’t been there before. He didn’t look like a man who had given up. He looked like a man who was recalibrating.
“Go away,” he rasped. “Go to your billionaire. Go count your diamonds p>
Eliza sat on the stone bench nearby. She didn’t sit on the swing beside him. That space was gone.
“You saved me when I was little, Anson,” she said softly. “You gave me a home when I had nothing. I never forgot that p>
“And then I sold you,” Anson spat, his voice thick with self-loathing. “To Claudine. To Dallas. I failed you p>
“You didn’t sell me,” Eliza said. “You just didn’t choose me. You chose the family. You chose fear p>
“I tried!” Anson argued, gripping the chains of the swing until his knuckles turned white. “I tried to protect the family so I could protect you! I thought if I had the power, I could keep you safe p>
“But in doing so, you hurt me the most,” Eliza said gently. “You became the very thing I needed protection from p>
“I love you, Eliza,” Anson whispered. “More than him. He doesn’t know you. He just bought you p>