Chapter 9 - Epilogue – Two Years LaterTwo years went by in the blink of an eye.
The coastal town was everything the city hadn't been: quiet, breathing, and real. The salty breeze, the sound of crashing waves against the cliffs, and the laughter of a toddler running across the wooden deck of our new home became my daily reality.
Eli was walking now, a bright-eyed, energetic little boy with his uncle Damian’s fierce curiosity and my stubborn determination.
I had gone back to school, finishing my degree in corporate law with top honors. No longer the background character in someone else’s story, I had recently accepted a position as a senior consultant for a major advocacy group protecting victims of financial and emotional abuse.
One afternoon, while sorting through some old archives for a case study, a local newspaper clipping caught my eye.
It was a small, back-page article detailing the parole hearing of Ryan Vance.
According to the brief report, Ryan was serving his sentence at a medium-security federal penitentiary upstate. His mother had sold off whatever was left of her estate to pay for his legal fees, only to cut ties with him six months into his sentence. Vanessa Vance had married a shipping heir in Europe and refused to acknowledge Ryan ever existed.
He was entirely alone.
I stared at the black-and-white photograph printed beside the article. The man in the picture looked nothing like the polished, arrogant executive who had stood in our hallway two years ago. His hair was cropped short, his shoulders were slumped, and his eyes stared blankly ahead.
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I didn't feel anger. I didn't feel satisfaction.
I simply folded the clipping, dropped it straight into the recycling bin, and walked out onto the sunny porch where Eli was playing with his wooden blocks.
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