I forced myself up from the floor and said with a shaking voice, “Callum, those are my mother’s keepsakes. Give her whatever you want, I don’t care. But don’t take those from me.”
The more I spoke, the harder it was to breathe. Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face as I begged, “I’m begging you, please.”
But Callum only looked at me with cold disdain. “All you care about is a few things left behind by the dead? You hit and insulted Briar, and you won’t even apologize? When did you become so selfish and vicious? Apologize to her!”
I knelt on the ground, bowing over and over until my forehead ached. My voice broke apart as I cried, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please, please give me my mother’s things back.”
Briar softly murmured, “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have envied her for having a husband who loves her and so many nice things.”
Hearing that, the pain in Callum’s eyes almost overflowed.
He pried my fingers off the box one by one, which desperately clung to the only things I had left from my mother.
“Elara,” he said coldly, “when you do something wrong, you make up for it. These things, I’ve decided, they’ll all go to Briar as your apology.”