Chapter 3
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Charlotte didn’t respond to Elias’s dismissive offer. She gathered the shattered pendant with trembling fingers, her throat too tight to speak. Each broken piece felt like a fragment of her past–of her father–slipping away forever.
After what felt like an eternity, she looked up at Elias with eyes that had gone eerily calm. “Don’t worry about it, Uncle Elias.”
She turned and walked quickly toward the stairs, shoulders rigid with barely contained
emotion.
Elias stood frozen, those two words-“Uncle Elias“-echoing in his head. Since that night
years ago when he’d caught her kissing him, Charlotte had stubbornly, infuriatingly refused to use that title. Now she’d used it voluntarily, and something about it felt wrong.
“Babe? Hello?” Scarlett tugged at his sleeve, pulling him from his thoughts.
“Sorry,” ” Elias said, his voice automatically softening as he refocused on Scarlett. “Don’t
stress about what happened. Charlotte’s always been… intense about her stuff. I probably
spoiled her too much growing up.”
Scarlett looked surprised at his defense of Charlotte. She nodded with exaggerated
understanding, though something possessive and calculating flashed in her eyes.
She pressed herself against him, suddenly needy. “So after my surgery, we’re finally doing this, right? Setting a date? I’ve waited so long, Elias.”
The tension in his shoulders melted as he brushed her cheek with his thumb. “Whatever
you want, sweetheart. I’m all yours.”
“Really?” Scarlett’s face lit up with genuine joy. “I’m going to be the most beautiful bride ever. Everyone will be jealous.”
For the next several days, Charlotte became a phantom in the house. She left before sunrise for campus, returning long after dinner, her footsteps deliberately silent on the stairs.
On Thursday evening, Charlotte dragged a cardboard box to the living room fireplace when
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The Moment I Let Go My Uncle: Escaping the Forbidden Past
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Chapter 3
she thought the house was empty. Inside were hundreds of letters–every embarrassing confession, every desperate declaration of love she’d written to Elias over the years. One by one, she fed them to the flames, watching her childish handwriting curl and blacken.
As she was about to toss in the final letter, a sharp voice cut through the room. “What the hell are you doing?”
Charlotte’s heart slammed against her ribs. She hadn’t heard Elias come in. She didn’t answer, couldn’t look at him.
Elias strode forward, catching sight of the partially burned paper in her hand. His face darkened with anger as he grabbed her wrist, hard enough to hurt.
“Are you kidding me right now?” he demanded, his voice vibrating with tension. “Another dramatic performance? Burning your little love notes where I’ll just happen to find you? God, Charlotte, when will you grow up?”
Charlotte kept her eyes fixed on the fire as she pulled her arm free, her voice hollow. “Contrary to what you might think, not everything I do is about you.”
Something in her tone made Elias pause, but his anger quickly returned. “The wedding’s in ten days,” he announced coldly, watching for her reaction. “You’re welcome to come, if you can act like an adult for once.”
Charlotte felt like she’d been punched. Ten days. Her plane ticket to Tanzania was for exactly ten days from now. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Then she forced her lips into what she hoped resembled a smile.
“Congratulations,” she managed, the word like ash in her mouth.
She would be gone by then. She’d never attend his wedding, never see him again. The thought should have brought relief, but instead, a crushing finality settled over her. She turned to leave, desperate to escape before she broke down.
As she reached the doorway, Elias called after her: “Scarlett says a woman only gets one wedding. She doesn’t trust some random planner to handle it.”
Charlotte paused, genuinely confused through her emotional haze. “What does that have to do with me?”
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The Moment I Let Go My Uncle: Escaping the Forbidden Past
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“I want you to organize it,” he said, his tone suddenly businesslike. “You’ve known me since you were ten. You know what I’d want better than some stranger.”
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