Chapter 19 - The Permit Office
Four years after wedding, county called again.
An application had been submitted for a nearby property called Cedar Ridge Lodge.
Not mine.
Why contact me?
Because applicant was Kelsey.
She had started a legitimate event planning company again.
Different name.
Different venue owned by someone else.
The county wanted to confirm there was no continuing injunction barring her from event planning generally.
There wasn’t.
Our injunction only prevented misrepresenting rights to Cedar Hollow.
I told truth.
“She is free to work elsewhere.”
The official sounded surprised.
“You don’t object?”
“Why would I?”
“I understood there was history.”
“History isn’t permanent ownership of someone’s future.”
I hung up and realized I meant it.
Kelsey could build another career.
Consequences were not supposed to become endless private punishment.
She had completed restitution.
Probation.
Civil judgment.
Stayed away.
If she learned, good.
If not, still not mine.
Months later, one of Susan’s friends attended a wedding Kelsey coordinated.
She told me:
“It was beautiful.”
I said:
“Good.”
That was all.
No comparison.
May you like
No check whether flowers were stolen.
People can change without being invited back into your life.
