on the steps, one hand resting over the necklace at her throat.
She still grieved the child she had lost.
Some losses did not become smaller; life simply grew around them.
But the woman who had once been told to know her place finally understood something Victoria never had.
Her place was not beneath anyone’s heel, inside anyone’s mansion, or beside a man who noticed her value only after losing access to it.
Her place was wherever she could stand without asking permission.
Audrey walked toward the waiting car, carrying nothing but her mother’s necklace and her own name.
This time, both were enough.
