Chapter 10 - The Architecture of a New DawnOne year after the divorce, the Hudson River sparkled under a brilliant autumn sun.
Erin Carter sat on the private balcony of her newly renovated penthouse overlooking Manhattan, holding a crystal glass of Krug champagne. The Grant estate had long since been sold, replaced by her own sleek, modern architectural masterpiece in Tribeca—designed entirely by her father’s firm, with her name on the deed.
She wore a silk emerald-green blouse, the breeze catching her dark hair as she looked out over the skyline where city lights were just beginning to sharpen against the twilight.
Her phone chimed on the patio table.
She picked it up, expecting a message from her legal team regarding the final corporate liquidation audits. Instead, it was an alert from her new investment portfolio management app.
Dividend payout confirmed: $1,250,000.00
Erin smiled, a warm, radiant expression that reached all the way to her eyes.
She thought back to that snowy February evening two years ago—the cold dinner, the ignored candles, the titanium black card tossed onto the table like a challenge. Alexander had tried to buy her silence and keep her hidden in the shadow of his first love.
May you like
Instead, he had handed her the match that burned his entire world to the ground.
Erin raised her champagne glass to the glittering Manhattan skyline, clinked it against the empty air, and whispered to the wind:
