Chapter 5: The Price of Regret
Chapter 5: The Price of Regret
Weeks later, Leo requested a meeting.
He arrived alone.
Without lawyers.
Without his mother.
Without excuses.
Anna met him in the garden.
He looked thinner.
Older.
"I don't deserve forgiveness."
She remained silent.
"I should have stood beside you that night."
"I was afraid of losing my family."
Anna looked at him quietly.
"You already had a family."
"You just didn't protect it."
Leo lowered his head.
"I know."
He handed her the wedding ring he had continued wearing.
"I won't ask you to come back."
"I only wanted to say I'm sorry."
Anna accepted the ring.
Not as a promise.
But as the final page of a painful chapter.
She placed it gently on the table.
"I forgive you."
"But forgiveness doesn't erase consequences."
Leo nodded.
For the first time...
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He understood the difference between regret and redemption.
He walked away without looking back.
