Chapter 14 - Sophie Started Making the Tea
A year later, Sophie asked if she could make tea for me.
I froze.
She noticed.
“Mom?”
I smiled.
“Yes.”
We stood together in the kitchen.
She chose peppermint.
Filled the kettle with too much water.
Dropped the teabag onto the floor.
Started over.
Then she carried the mug toward me with both hands.
“Nothing weird in it.”
I laughed.
Then cried.
Sophie looked horrified.
“Mommy?”
“They’re happy tears.”
“That’s weird.”
“Very.”
She sat beside me.
For months, I had believed Patricia poisoned one of our safest routines forever.
She hadn’t.
The ritual belonged to whoever we allowed into it.
Not to Patricia.
Not to Daniel.
To us.
My apartment building remained mine.
Professionally managed.
Unpledged.
I did not sell it out of spite.
Did not build a revenge empire.
May you like
I simply continued owning what had always been mine.
That felt radical after ten years of being told ownership without family permission was selfish.
