Avery raised the black, embroidered handkerchief he gave her.
"This," she replied. Pulling her trousers up, she pointed at the jewelry glittering around her ankle and said, "This too. You don't have to give me things she used to own or things you would have given her if she was well... alive, sorry about that. I've taken enough from her. Her room, her clothes, her things, her name...I even soiled the last one," she inhaled sharply, "I shouldn't take anything else from her without having a way to return the favor."
As she concluded her outburst, Avery half expected him to laugh at her. To tell her she wasn't in any place to choose; to implore her to just take what he was offering and settle into her position as his wife. To continue living life as a replacement.
But even if she was bound to be a replacement, Avery thought, why not be a total replacement in all aspects of his life? Why did she have to feel guilty for taking all and never giving any?
