He Made Me Pay for Five Years; Now He Regrets

Chapter eight

Charlotte’s POV

Sophia stepped into my room and shut the door behind her. For a moment she just stood there, watching me like she couldn’t decide where to start. I understood the hesitation–there were a thousand things we both wanted to say, and neither of us knew which one to reach for first.

Five years of absence had made even small talk feel complicated.

“Are you alright?” she asked finally.

“I’m fine. Just a little disoriented with coming back and all.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either.

Hill Manor wasn’t the place I remembered. Still beautiful, still warm, but it belonged to someone else’s life now. Grace’s toys scattered by the stairs, her room down the hall, people who knew her better than her own mother did. My daughter had grown up while I was somewhere else, fighting just to stay alive.

Sophia sat beside me. “That’s understandable. Anyone would feel overwhelmed, coming back after so long.”

“I don’t know how to make things right with Grace.” My eyes dropped to my hands.

“Just give her time, Charlotte, I'm sure she will come around,” she said softly, offering me a soft smile.

“Do you think she’ll accept me?”

“Yes.” She said it so fast I almost believed it outright, then her eyes softened. “Grace is young. She’s spent five years building her world around the people who were actually here. Mason and I have been part of her every day for a long time, so of course she’s comfortable with us. That doesn’t mean there’s no room for you. She knows you’re her mother, she just needs time to understand and adjust.”

My throat tightened. “I feel like I missed everything.”

“I know.” Two words, and somehow they hurt worse than anything else she could have said because she understood exactly what I’d lost.

We sat with that for a moment before I asked, “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Have you been taking care of her all this time? Since she was five?”

“Yes, I have,” she answered, “I felt it was only right that I took up that role with your absence.”

I looked down at my hands, gratitude and grief tangled together. “Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” she said, “Grace is mine as much as she is yours.

“I do.” My voice dropped. “You were there when I couldn’t be. You watched her grow up, comforted her when she was upset, sat beside her every night when she went to sleep. You gave her everything she deserved.”

Sophia took my hand. “Charlotte, there’s nothing to thank me for. You’re my sister. Grace is my niece. Taking care of her was never a responsibility to me–she’s family. I love her dearly because she’s part of you.”

My chest finally eased at her words. I’d spent so long grieving what I’d lost that I’d forgotten to be grateful for the people who’d protected what remained. Sophia hadn’t taken my place, she’d carried what I couldn’t.

I took a breath before asking the question I’d been avoiding. “How are Michael and Penny?”

Her face fell instantly, but then she covered it almost immediately with an awkward smile. “They’re both doing well.”

“Have they… asked about me?”

She nodded. “Yes, so many times in fact.”

My chest tightened. “I don’t think I can see them.”

“Why?” She asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.

I laughed, but there was nothing funny about the situation. “Because I don’t know how to face them. I know what they think of me.”

“They don’t hate you.”

“You weren’t there.” The memories came back uninvited. “After the accident, I saw their faces, I saw the disappointment in Michael’s eyes. I saw Penny trying not to cry when she looked at me. They lost someone because of me. How am I supposed to walk back into their lives and act as if nothing happened?”

“That was years ago, Charlotte. They’ve forgiven you.”

I shook my head, trying to blink back the tears. “I don’t think I’ve forgiven myself.”

The room went quiet. That was the truth I could never outrun– everyone else wanted me to move on, but they didn’t understand I was still stuck in that night. The accident wasn’t something that happened in the past, it was something I carried with me every single day.

“I remember how they looked at me,” I whispered. “I remember the pain on their faces. I can’t forget it.”

“They were grieving. They’d lost someone they loved. That pain wasn’t because they stopped loving you.”

“I know.” A tear slid down my cheek. “But I still can’t face them.”

Sophia went quiet for a long moment, then nodded. “Alright. I won’t push you.”

I was grateful for that.

She stayed a while longer before she left. I watched her go, grateful and guilty at the same time. She’d given my daughter years of love and protected Grace when I couldn’t. And still, some part of me wondered if there would ever be room for me again.

*********

Sophia Pov

I left Charlotte’s room and walked outside the manor.

The night air was cold, but I barely felt it. I took out a cigarette and lit it, and watched the smoke disappear into the darkness.

Seeing Charlotte again had dragged up things I’d spent years trying to bury–the accident, Nerissa, the secrets that had remained hidden for years.

I pulled out my phone and dialed a number.

“You can’t come back to Chicago,” I said into the phone as soon as the call connected after several rings.

There was a small pause and then the voice on the other end huffed. “Why not?”

I stared at the lights of Hill Manor. “Because Charlotte’s back.”

A cold laugh came through the line. “So what if she’s back? She doesn’t know what happened.”

My expression hardened. “She saw you,” I let out, and the laughter died instantly.

Even after all these years, that was the one thing neither of us could shake.

“You’re wrong,” the person gritted.

“No, I’m not.” My voice went cold. “You pushed Nerissa, and Charlotte saw you do it.”

The line went silent after that.

“The footage got deleted, but that doesn’t change what happened,” I continued. “She saw you, so you need to stay away for now.”

A sigh came through the line. “And what am I supposed to do?”

“Stay in Vegas. I’ll send you money so you can keep doing whatever you want there, but you can't come back yet.”

“For how long?”

I looked back toward the manor. “Until I know that Charlotte isn’t a threat.” Then, I added, “But eventually, you have to go back to Dylan.”

Because no matter how far we tried to run, the truth had a way of finding its way back.