Chapter 17 - A Visit to the City
While Meredith’s career soared to new heights in Chicago, Sabine’s world continued to contract within the narrow confines of her Cincinnati routine. One afternoon in late May, Sabine found herself standing outside a trendy downtown art gallery, gazing longingly through the pristine glass storefront at an exhibition of large-scale abstract expressionism.
Her fingers twitched instinctively. The canvases inside were vibrant, textured, alive with color and movement—everything she believed her own art possessed, yet lacked the platform to display.
The gallery door chimed, and a well-dressed woman stepped out, carrying a shopping bag bearing the gallery's elegant cursive logo. Sabine stepped aside automatically, her drab retail uniform feeling suddenly heavy and humiliating against her skin.
She pulled out her phone and opened Instagram. Her thumb hovered over the search bar, instinctively searching for Meredith Kellan’s profile—a compulsion she indulged in every few weeks like picking at an old scab.
Meredith’s account was strictly private, of course. But a mutual acquaintance—an old college friend who didn't know the full extent of the family implosion—had recently posted a photograph from a high-society legal gala in downtown Chicago.
Sabine tapped on the image.
There was Meredith, standing on the balcony of a glittering rooftop venue overlooking the Chicago skyline. She wore a breathtaking, midnight-blue silk evening gown that accentuated her posture and poise. Her hair was styled in sleek, cascading waves, and a genuine, radiant smile lit up her face as she clinked champagne flutes with a group of distinguished corporate executives.
The caption read: *Celebrating Meredith Kellan’s well-deserved partnership at Vance & Sterling LLP. Brilliant mind, unstoppable force!*
Sabine stared at the screen, her breath hitching in her throat. Partnership. High society. Absolute, unblemished success.
While Sabine was scrubbing paint off her linoleum floor and watching seventy percent of her meager retail wages vanish into court-mandated restitution, Meredith was ascending to the absolute pinnacle of corporate law.
A hot wave of bitter envy rushed through Sabine’s chest. She wanted to smash her phone against the concrete sidewalk. She wanted to scream, to call someone, to complain about how unfair life was, how Meredith had always been the cold, unfeeling one who didn't appreciate the artistic temperament.
Instead, the bustling Cincinnati sidewalk flowed silently around her. Commuters walked past without a glance. No one stopped to comfort her. No one offered to fix her mistakes.
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Sabine lowered her phone, her hands shaking slightly. For the first time, the horrifying reality of what she had thrown away crystallized in her mind. She hadn't just lost a financial safety net; she had severed her connection to the only person who had ever truly built a stable foundation for their family. And no amount of artistic whining could ever paint over the ruin she had created with her own hands.
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