He Took My Design, I Revealed the Truth

Chapter 4

That night, I returned to Warren Villa.

My mother was pruning the white roses in the greenhouse. The moment she saw me, she froze.

"Zoey, when did you get so thin?"

I opened my mouth to tell her I was fine, but the tears came before the words did.

My mother put down the pruning shears and pulled me into her arms.

"Did Mr. Warren do something to hurt you again?"

I buried my face against her shoulder, my voice so hoarse it barely sounded like mine.

"Mom, let's leave. I have a chance to start over somewhere else, and I don't want us to stay here anymore."

My mother was silent for a long time.

I knew what she was afraid of.

She was worried about rent, the rest of my tuition, and whether anyone would hire a groundskeeper her age after she left Warren Villa.

In the end, she stroked my hair and said, "All right. We'll leave."

The next morning, my mother resigned from her position at Warren Villa.

Grace looked surprised for only a moment before regaining her usual composure.

"That may be for the best. Children grow up. Sooner or later, they have to make their own way. The Warren family has been very good to you all these years. Once you leave, I trust you understand that the family's private affairs are not to be discussed with outsiders."

My mother kept her eyes lowered.

"You have nothing to worry about, Mrs. Grace Warren. We won't discuss your family, and we won't take anything that doesn't belong to us."

We owned very little, just a few boxes of old clothes, some drawings, and the woodworking tools my father had left behind.

Before my father died, he had been a master timber framer who specialized in hand-cut joinery.

As a child, I had not understood what that meant. I only knew he could build timber pavilions whose beams locked together with wooden pegs, without a single visible nail or screw.

The beams fit together and were secured with wooden pegs, allowing the structures to stand for generations without visible metal fasteners.

The ceremony pavilion in my destination wedding project had been inspired by the unfinished drawings he left behind.

Before we left, I set out every dress and handbag Vincent had given me in the living room.

Grace glanced at them and frowned slightly.

"You're leaving all of these behind?"

"I don't want anything he gave me," I said.

I tightened my grip on my father's old sketchbook.

That was the only thing that felt truly mine.

Grace smiled faintly.

"Zoey, people should know their place. Vincent will marry Madison and cement the alliance with the Robles family. Madison is the kind of wife he needs. Leaving now is best for everyone."

I nodded.

"I know."

At last, I was willing to admit the truth.

Some doors had never been meant to open for me.

The moment I got into the car, Vincent called.

His voice was tight with suppressed anger.

"You actually left with your mother? Zoey, can you stop being so childish?"

I looked out the window at Warren Villa as it receded into the distance.

"Vincent, I'm not being childish. I've finally come to my senses."

For a moment, he said nothing, as if the words had caught him off guard.

A second later, a cold laugh came through the phone.

"Fine. You'd better hope you don't regret it."

His voice turned cruel. I ended the call.

The message Xavier had sent half an hour earlier was still open on my screen.

Xavier: A driver is waiting at the front gate of Warren Villa. The plate ends in 726. You and your mother can take your time. He'll take you to the airport.

I looked up from my phone toward the driver's seat.

The driver met my eyes in the rearview mirror and said, "Ms. Cline, Mr. Haley will meet you at the airport."

My mother tightened her grip on my hand.

I watched Warren Villa shrink behind us as the truth finally sank in. I was really leaving.

This time, no one was driving me out. I was leaving on my own.