Margaret covered her face with both hands.
Her shoulders began to shake.
“You destroyed everything,” she moaned. “You miserable nobody… you ruined my family.”
Claire rose slowly.
“No. You destroyed it yourselves. With greed. Lies. Control. Hatred. I merely closed the door behind you.”
She picked up her bag and walked toward the exit.
At the door, she stopped and looked back.
“One week. Then I go to the police.”
She left without turning around.
Rachel was waiting beside her car outside the building, smoking and tapping ash into an empty metal can.
“Well?”
Claire climbed into the passenger seat.
“Drive.”
Rachel started the engine.
“How are you holding up?”
Claire watched the evening city glide past the window.
Gray apartment blocks.
Rain shining on the pavement.
A few people waiting at bus stops.
She opened her bag and took out her grandmother’s brooch—the one she had managed to hide before moving into the apartment.
Old silver.
A dark amethyst.
Claire ran her thumb over the cold stone.
“You know, Rachel, I used to be terrified of being alone. I thought loneliness was the worst thing that could happen to me.”
She fell silent for a moment.
“Then I realized something. Real loneliness is being surrounded by people and still feeling completely empty inside. I’m empty now too. But this emptiness is quiet. And do you know what? That quiet is worth more to me than all the money in the world.”
Rachel smirked.
“Not bad. You could put that on a coffee mug.”
Claire smiled.
For the first time in a very long while, the smile reached beyond her lips.
Her eyes smiled too.
“Let’s go home,” she said. “I’m going to have a new home now. And a cat. I’m definitely getting a cat.”
The car moved smoothly into traffic.
Claire leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes.
There was still emptiness inside her.
But it no longer suffocated her.
It had made room for freedom.