Page 156 of When Hearts Surrender

Agnes stands at the threshold, looking uncertain. Her fingers tightly clutch the handle of the case.

Maxwell and I’ve never finished our assessment of her performance in her probation period after he warned her about her attitude. And frankly, with everything that has gone on, I haven’t given a crap about her.

Taylor and Millie stand next to me, their foreheads crinkled, clearly wondering the reason for this strange, silent standoff.

Finally, Agnes clears her throat. “I-I’m sorry, Ms. Belle.”

“For?” I won’t make this easy on her.

She swallows. “I’ve been unprofessional toward you and you didn’t deserve my attitude. It was wrong of me…I see that now.”

“How do I know you mean what you’re saying when you’ve been anything but welcoming toward me? To be honest, I don’t really want to talk about this with you right now.” Not with everything going on. Not with Maxwell still in the hospital.

“Please!” she pleads. “It was misguided! I wanted to save you!”

My blood turns cold.Please don’t tell me she had anything to do with what happened.Taylor stiffens next to me, clearly thinking the same thing.

“Were you a part of it, Agnes? Were you? Is this some ploy to get the inheritance? Because I swear if you were, I’ll make you regret it and I—”

Agnes’s eyes widen and she shakes her head vehemently. “No! Of course not! You might not see this, but I love the family. I watched Sir Maxwell and his siblings grow up.”

Her voice chokes as her eyes glisten. “Ms. Juliana was one of my best friends when she was alive. She never treated me like staff. She never looked down at me for refusing to leave my gambler of a husband because I wasn’t ready. She brought life to the estate…just like you.”

My chest pinches at the sadness on her face, something that can’t be faked.

She continues, “We all knew about the curse—the tree branch, the signs, the accidents—but Ms. Julianna didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t say I blamed her,” she looks up, her eyes pleading with meto understand, “by then she had fallen in love with her husband, who treated her like a queen.”

Agnes shakes her head sadly. “But when she died, I lost a piece of me too—my best friend. And I blamed myself for not warning her, for not believing the curse and the signs. Of course, none of us suspected Morris was behind everything.”

She steps forward, her fingers white-knuckled around the handle of the case. “Don’t you see? When you arrived, I was hit with the strongest sense of déjà vu. IknewSir Maxwell had feelings for you. I watched him grow up. That little boy didn’t like to smile. He always seemed like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. But he smiled so much more these months, even when you two were fighting. There was a fire in his eyes I’d never seen before.”

Her hand swipes the moisture pooling in her eyes. “I knew it was going to happen again. I was sure of it. And this time, I vowed to myself I wouldn’t let anything happen. Not to Sir Maxwell. Not to you.”

My heart pounds rapidly, listening to her ardent explanation. She was trying to save me. In her own twisted way?

“I now see that it was wrong of me to warn you away from the house. I thought—why would you listen to me, a stranger? Ms. Julianna and I were the best of friends, and she didn’t listen to me. I knew I had to do something drastic this time—be cold toward you and chase you away. I was hoping you’d leave on your own and we wouldn’t have to go through another tragedy. But I guess it didn’t work.” She shakes her head. “I still can’t believe it was Morris…all these years, working side by side, I didn’t know a thing.”

A sob tears from my mouth, and I turn away. Millie hushes me, smoothing her hand over my back as I shake my head.

It’s my fault. If I hadn’t insisted Maxwell love me back, if I didn’t ask him to fight for me, for us, would Morris have let us go? Would things still have turned out this way?

Agnes whispers, “Don’t blame yourself, Ms. Belle. Perhaps everything is fated and we’re all merely players in a game pre-planned for us. Sir Maxwell wouldn’t want you to blame yourself. He loves you so much.”

“Maxwell,” I whisper, the hole in my chest feeling bigger than ever before.

Agnes sniffles. “Regardless of my intentions, I want to apologize. I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did. Even if you don’t keep me on, I just want to tell you the truth.”

We stare at each other, united in the heaviness of sadness and slowly, I give her a nod, motioning to the canvas by the window.

A piece of him left for me.

“Please be careful,” I whisper to her as her eyes widen in shock before she hustles over, getting to work and carefully wrapping up Maxwell’s artwork.

My lips tremble and I turn to Millie, whose face crumbles as she wraps me in her arms.

“Oh Belle,” she murmurs and I bury my face in her hair, tears slipping down my cheeks.

“I miss him, Millie,” I sob, the pulverized pieces of my heart trying to flare back to life, but the effort is too painful. “God, I miss him so much.”

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