Claire looked confused.
“Do what?”
“Change the locks. Freeze accounts. Make everything so complicated.”
She stared at him.
“You locked me in a room while I was pregnant.”
Julian looked away.
“I was angry.”
“You left me alone.”
“I thought you needed time.”
“You took my money.”
His silence answered before he did.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Claire almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the sentence was so familiar.
People always said “it wasn’t like that” when they wanted to avoid saying what it really was.
“What was it like, Julian?”
He didn’t answer.
The silence between them became heavier.
“I made mistakes,” he finally said.
Claire nodded.
“Yes.”
His eyes moved toward the stairs.
“Can we fix this?”
The question surprised her.
Not because she wanted to hear it.
Because she realized he truly believed fixing things meant returning to the way they were.
As if nothing had changed.
“You still don’t understand,” she said.
“What?”
“This isn’t about one vacation.”
Julian looked at her.
“It’s about every time you decided your feelings mattered more than mine.”
His expression tightened.
“You’re making me the villain.”
“No.”
Claire shook her head.
“I’m telling you what happened.”
Beatrice refused to accept that the situation was serious.
She spent the first several days calling relatives.
“She’s overreacting,” she said.
“She’s confused because of the baby.”
“She’ll calm down.”
But the reactions she received were not what she expected.
People asked questions.
Questions she did not like.
Why had Julian taken Claire’s money?
Why had they left while Claire was heavily pregnant?
Why did the house records show Claire as the sole beneficiary?
For years, Beatrice had controlled the family story.
Now, for the first time, other people were seeing the missing pieces.
And she hated that.
One evening, she confronted Julian.
“You need to fix this.”
Julian looked exhausted.
