Now she was offering a way to resolve the marriage through legal advice and negotiation, and I was forced to confront a question I had avoided since the beginning.
What did I actually want?
I thought about the life I had imagined before the wedding.
I wanted to pay off my father’s debts. I wanted my mother to live comfortably. I wanted to own a business and never again feel powerless because I had no money.
None of those dreams required me to remain married to Margaret.
But none of them required her fortune, either.
“I need time to think,” I said.
She nodded.
“Take it.”
I left the library and went outside.
The garden was quiet. I sat on a bench beneath a tree and watched the lights appear in the mansion windows.
For the first time, I wasn’t calculating how much the property was worth or how much I might inherit.
