Chapter 10

Ten years after that terrible dinner, I stood in the boardroom of Halden Group.

I was thirty-four. CEO. Founder of the Halden Foundation. Wife. Mother.

The company was worth three times what it had been when my father died. We employed ten thousand people. We were the most ethical company in our industry. We'd changed the way business was done.

Celeste was still in prison. She'd written me once. I hadn't opened it. She was my past. And I was done with the past.

Victor was still in prison. Roland was still in prison. They were gone. Forgotten.

Clara was ten. She was the smartest kid in her class. She wanted to be a CEO "just like Mommy." She ran a lemonade stand and donated the profits to the foundation. She was already changing the world.

Adrian and I were happy. Still. After ten years. We argued. We laughed. We loved. We built. We were partners. Equals.

One evening, I was in my office—my father's old office, now mine—when Adrian came in. He had two glasses of wine.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he said.

I looked out the window. The city. The lights. The life I'd built.

"I was thinking about that night. The rain. The window. The car. If I hadn't stepped into the road—if your car had been five minutes later—none of this would exist."

Adrian handed me a glass. "But you did. And it was. And here we are."

I took a sip. "Here we are."

He put his arm around me. We watched the sunset. Somewhere in the penthouse, Clara was playing the piano—badly, but enthusiastically.

"Emma," Adrian said. "Do you ever regret it? Not running. But—everything that came after. The trial. The press. The stress."

I thought about it. The fear. The lies. The death threats. The long nights. The tears.

"No," I said. "Because it led here. To you. To Clara. To the foundation. To thousands of women who are free because I decided to fight. I would do it all again. Every cut. Every bruise. Every sleepless night. I would do it all again."

He kissed me.

And we stood there, in the office my father had built, in the company I'd saved, in the life I'd fought for.

Safe. Loved. Confident. Free.

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The end.