"I did not sleep at all," she began. "I kept thinking about what I said to you, and the way I treated you because of your appearance and the color of your skin. I cannot stop hearing those words."
Gladis listened without interrupting.
"I never thought of myself as a bad person," Katherine continued. "But when I look honestly at what I did, I see how cruel I was. I do not know how I allowed prejudice to become so normal in the way I thought. I do not understand why I found it so easy to judge you before I knew anything about you."
Tears ran down her face.
"I cannot forgive myself for it."
Gladis reached across the table and placed her weathered hand over Katherine's trembling one.
"The most important thing is that you recognize what happened," she said. "No one is born perfect. We all carry things we have learned from our families, our communities, and our own fears. What matters is whether we are willing to see those things clearly and change them."
Katherine cried harder.
"The past will remain the past," Gladis continued. "But the future is still in your hands. Use what happened to become a better person. Do something good for people you once failed to see. That is how regret becomes useful."
Katherine squeezed Gladis's hand.
"I will," she said. "I promise I will never make that mistake again. I want to become a better person, not only for myself, but for you and for the people I have hurt."
Gladis did not tell her that a promise was enough. She simply smiled gently.
When Katherine left the modest house, she felt lighter, but she also understood that an apology could not erase what she had done. If she truly wanted to change, the proof would have to appear in her actions.
Katherine began by changing how she spent her time.
The extravagant parties and empty social gatherings that had once dominated her calendar gradually disappeared. She stopped measuring her weeks by galas, private dinners, and invitations designed mostly to reassure wealthy people that they still belonged to one another. For the first time, she recognized how easily those environments had blinded her to the lives of people outside them.
She began volunteering at the children's hospital where Gladis had once been treated.
At first, the nurses did not know what to make of her. Some remembered exactly what had happened at the gala. Others had heard enough of the story to be suspicious of a wealthy woman suddenly appearing in simple clothes, asking for ordinary work.
Katherine understood their hesitation.
She did not ask for a title or a photograph. She helped prepare treatment rooms, carried supplies, organized children's books, and sat with young patients whose parents needed a few minutes to eat or make phone calls. She arrived early and wore no expensive jewelry.
The work felt small compared with the grand gestures she had once associated with charity, but that was precisely why it mattered.