Chapter 19 - GENESIS TELLS HER VERSION
Genesis asked to meet Avery one final time.
Avery almost refused.
Then accepted with Rebecca nearby but not at the table.
Public café.
Daylight.
Genesis arrived without makeup.
Avery barely recognized the effect.
Not weakness.
Age.
Genesis sat.
“I sold Maple Street.”
Avery waited.
“I know that may make you happy.”
“It doesn’t.”
Genesis looked surprised.
Avery continued.
“I never wanted you to lose property. I wanted you to stop treating mine like the solution.”
Genesis nodded.
“The sale covered most of the balloon.”
“Good.”
“I hated it.”
“I’m sure.”
“That property saved Jackson.”
Avery understood.
Selling it felt like selling the evidence of her sacrifice.
Genesis said:
“I think that’s why I wanted your apartment.”
Avery looked at her.
“Not just money.”
“What?”
Genesis’s eyes filled.
“If your apartment came into the family, then I didn’t have to lose the thing I gave up for him.”
Avery sat quietly.
There it was.
Symbolic substitution.
Genesis wanted Avery’s independence converted into preservation of Genesis’s sacrifice.
Not consciously perhaps.
But deeply.
Genesis continued.
“I thought you had more than you needed.”
Avery smiled sadly.
“That is how taking always begins.”
Genesis nodded.
“I know.”
They sat.
Then Genesis said:
“I still think families should sacrifice.”
“So do I.”
Genesis looked surprised.
Avery continued.
“I think the person sacrificing gets to choose.”
Genesis closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Avery watched her.
“Do you forgive me?”
The question irritated Avery.
Genesis saw it.
“Wrong question?”
“Yes.”
“What should I ask?”
“Nothing.”
Genesis looked hurt.
Avery softened.
“You apologized.”
“Yes.”
“I heard you.”
“Then what?”
“Then you live differently.”
Genesis nodded slowly.
No ceremony.
No absolution.
No clean ending.
They stood.
Genesis said:
“I did love you.”
Avery believed her.
“I know.”
That was the tragedy.
People can love and still feel entitled.
May you like
Love does not automatically teach respect.
Sometimes respect has to survive where love failed.
