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Yet what none of them accounted for was that Thomas was still listening, even when he appeared absent. He understood far more than they assumed. He simply no longer believed that understanding translated into influence.
In time, the household settled into a quiet imbalance—one man who ruled everything, and another who occupied space within it without ever being fully included in its design.
And beneath it all, the plantation continued its relentless rhythm, indifferent to the private fractures within the family that owned it.