A SACRIFIES BEYOND LOVE

MRS WILLIAMS HOME OFFICE

Chapter Nine: The Office

Late that night, Mrs. Williams walked down the hallway with purpose.

"Judy. My office. Now."

The office was cold with air conditioning and expensive in the way rooms become expensive when they are furnished entirely by taste and never by accident. Mrs. Williams removed her earrings slowly, her back to her daughter.

"Do you think I'm blind?" she said.

"Mummy, I don't know what you mean."

She turned. "Don't play dumb with me. I saw how you packaged that boy tonight. Mainland contractor. Two-bedroom flat. Three years and still 'tough.'"

"He's honest, Mummy. He's working hard. He's not like the boys you keep bringing around."

"Hard work doesn't put you in our class." Mrs. Williams stepped closer. "Love doesn't protect your name when it hits the newspapers. When people ask, 'Who did the Williams' daughter marry?' — I won't have 'Bryan Okechukwu, contractor from the mainland' be the answer."

"So what?" Judy's voice rose. "I should marry for status? For image? I'm happy with him. When I'm with him, I feel peace."

"Peace doesn't pay school fees abroad. Peace doesn't keep you safe when things go bad." Mrs. Williams' voice softened in a way that made it harder to argue with. "What about Max?"

Judy stared at her. "Max? He's not even back yet, and you're already planning my life?"

"Max is from our world. He understands what it means to carry the Williams name. That boy doesn't. And he never will."

Judy looked at her mother for a long moment — at the woman who had raised her, who had sacrificed for her, who genuinely believed everything she was saying. The love was real. The limitation was real too.

"Then I guess," Judy said quietly, "you'll have to choose between your name and your daughter. Because I'm not letting him go."

She walked out, closing the door behind her. Not slamming it. Closing it.

Mrs. Williams stood alone in the expensive room, face hard, and something else moving beneath the hardness that she would not have named if asked.

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