SHACKLES

CHAPTER FIVE

Mia’s perspective

After the child left, Liz’s maid brought in the tea, and silence fell between us. The room felt heavier than the air outside. Liz sipped quietly, her eyes fixed on a distant thought.

“You spoil her, you know,” she murmured at last. “She always gets what she wants with you.”

“She’s a clever girl,” I said simply. “And spirited. What’s wrong with a little life in a house full of grief?”

Liz did not answer. Her eyes flickered toward the hearth.

“You mourn him,” I said. “Still.”

Her voice came low. “He’s in pain, Mia. He has not ceased to love me — he is simply... wounded.”

“And are you not wounded as well?” I asked, a little sharply. “Must you pretend only he has the right to suffer?”

She said nothing, so I stood and walked to the window, where the child ran barefoot in the grass, radiant and free.

“Look at her, Lizzie,” I said gently. “She burns with light, with joy — you must not extinguish that, not for a man who no longer sees the flame in you.”

At that, Liz drew in a shuddering breath. Her hands trembled on the cup. “I am not content,” she said, her voice cracking. “Man proposes, God disposes. I have been married for ten years.” A brittle laugh escaped her lips. “And sometimes I think I am losing my mind.”

The pain in her voice pierced me. I rose abruptly, anger rising not at her but for her.

“Elizabeth Hendrickson,” I said, “for God’s sake, awaken. That man — he has shed the illusion, and you must do the same. The scales have fallen from his eyes. Let them fall from yours. If you cannot live for yourself, then live for your child. And if you cannot live with him, then you must learn how to live without him.”

She looked up, her face pale, her expression stricken. “You think I have not tried?” she whispered. “I have tried, Mia. I swear it. But how does one unlove a man, one has known all her life?”

I sat back beside her. There were no easy answers — not then, not ever. So I reached for her hand and held it, tight and trembling, between my own.

“Then let us learn,” I said softly.

“Together”