Merchant’s Son Humiliated an Apprentice — But Her Father Owned the Trading House
Chapter 13
Lord Vale was captured two weeks later.
He was sentenced to transportation, and his remaining property was seized.
The last shadow over Greyhaven disappeared.
But Anna remembered the beginning.
The brown dress.
The old ledger.
The laughter.
She remembered how Elias had stood before everyone and told her she was temporary.
Years later, he would never let her forget how wrong he had been.
One spring afternoon, he brought her to the same counting room.
The room had changed.
New windows.
New desks.
New apprentices.
But the old oak table remained.
Elias placed a folded paper before her.
“What is this?”
“Read it.”
Anna opened it.
It was a formal proposal.
Not for marriage.
For something else.
A permanent charter giving Anna equal authority over Hawthorne & Sons.
She looked up.
“You already promised me partnership.”
“I promised you a place.”
He smiled.
“This gives you a voice that no one can take away.”
Anna looked at the document.
Then at him.
“You’ve changed.”
“So have you.”
She laughed.
“I was always like this.”
“True.”
He paused.
“I just needed time to notice.”
Anna closed the document.
“I’ll sign.”
He smiled.
Then she added:
“But I have one condition.”
“What?”
“Apprentices will never be humiliated because they are poor.”
Elias nodded.
“Agreed.”
“And no one will be dismissed for questioning an account.”
“Agreed.”
“And if my father ever tells you I’m difficult—”
“I’ll believe him.”
Anna laughed.
Elias laughed too.
The counting room filled with the sound.
Years earlier, that same room had echoed with humiliation.
Now it held something else.
Respect.
