Chapter 15 - The New CornerstoneDecember brought the first blanket of snow to Chicago, turning the city into a postcard of glittering lights and freezing winds.
My firm, Vance Risk Analysis & Corporate Integrity, had just secured a major partnership contract with an international auditing syndicate based in London. I was named Senior Managing Director, overseeing a team of thirty financial analysts who specialized in exposing corporate fraud and hidden liabilities.
On a Friday evening, I hosted a private celebration at an upscale rooftop lounge overlooking the Magnificent Mile.
I wore a tailored emerald-green velvet coat, my dark hair falling in clean lines over my shoulders. There was no veil, no white lace, no performance for an audience of judgmental relatives.
Maya raised her glass of champagne toward me.
“To the most brilliant risk analyst in the Midwest,” Maya toasted with a grin. “To building empires on absolute truth.”
We clinked our glasses, the crystal ringing out clear and bright against the hum of the city below.
May you like
I looked out across the glittering skyline. Ten years earlier, I had believed that love and marriage were structures you had to maintain at all costs, even if the foundation was rotting beneath your feet. I had blamed myself for every failure, crying in sterile clinic rooms over a lie engineered by a toxic family.
Now, I knew better.
