Elara's POV
Watching Callum dig through my box and hand over the last of my mother’s belongings to Briar, something inside me snapped.
I forced myself up from the floor and said with a shaking voice, “Callum, those are my mother’s keepsakes. Give her whatever you want, I don’t care. But don’t take those from me.”
The more I spoke, the harder it was to breathe. Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face as I begged, “I’m begging you, please.”
But Callum only looked at me with cold disdain. “All you care about is a few things left behind by the dead? You hit and insulted Briar, and you won’t even apologize? When did you become so selfish and vicious? Apologize to her!”
I knelt on the ground, bowing over and over until my forehead ached. My voice broke apart as I cried, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please, please give me my mother’s things back.”
Briar softly murmured, “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have envied her for having a husband who loves her and so many nice things.”
Hearing that, the pain in Callum’s eyes almost overflowed.
He pried my fingers off the box one by one, which desperately clung to the only things I had left from my mother.
“Elara,” he said coldly, “when you do something wrong, you make up for it. These things, I’ve decided, they’ll all go to Briar as your apology.”
Then his eyes suddenly widened as he noticed the blood dripping down my forehead. “You’re bleeding? Did I push you too hard?”
He took a step toward me, reaching out as if to help, but Briar immediately collapsed against him. “It hurts, Callum, my stomach. When she pushed me earlier, I think I hit the baby.”
Callum’s face drained of color. In an instant, he scooped her into his arms and rushed out.
Before leaving, he threw me one last sentence. “Elara, hold on for a bit. I’ll take Briar to the hospital and come right back to bandage your wound.”
I watched them disappear down the hallway.
Slowly, I wiped away my tears and the blood on my face.
Then I closed my suitcase, set the signed divorce papers neatly on the table, and picked up my travel documents. Without looking back, I walked toward the train station.
Before boarding the train, I returned the house keys to the steel factory director.
He handed me the transfer payment and patted my shoulder with deep respect. “Take care on your journey. We hope you’ll bring honor to our steel factory when you arrive in the Northwest.”
His words lit a faint spark in my heart, one that had gone cold from betrayal.
I nodded and smiled. “I will. I won’t fail you.”
I boarded the train with the others heading out to support the Northwest.
When I looked back, evening had already fallen. I wondered, just for a moment, whether Callum had rushed home to find me as he promised or if he stayed with Briar at the hospital.
But the thought barely formed before I scolded myself. What was the point of wondering about someone I’d already decided to let go?
The train whistle blew, long and sharp, and the world began to drift away.
