I Took Her Apologies Too Literally

The night before the legitimate heiress returned to the Harrington estate, my best friend, Phoebe, sent me a link to a trending Reddit thread.

The title read: "How to Spot a Covert Martyr."

I stared at my phone for three minutes, my eyelids growing heavier with every sentence.

"Rule Number One: She will drag herself through the dirt first, just so everyone else lines up to stone you."

"Rule Number Two: When she weeps and insists she doesn’t deserve what she has, it isn’t humility—it’s an eviction notice disguised as an apology."