Chapter 6 - THE SURVIVOR'S OATHThe surgery was grueling, but human resilience is a powerful thing.
Two weeks after the operation, I walked out of the hospital under my own power. No portable machine humming beside me. No clear tubing hidden beneath my sleeves. Just deep, clean breaths of autumn air filling my lungs and a strong, steady pulse racing through my veins.
I didn't go back to the empty family house immediately.
Instead, I took a taxi to St. Jude’s Cemetery, carrying a single bouquet of white lilies.
I stopped in front of Natalie’s headstone, gently brushing away a stray autumn leaf from the polished granite.
"He's going away for the rest of his life, Nat," I whispered softly, the morning sun warming my face. "Your estate is safe. Mercer Real Estate is being restructured into a charitable foundation in your name. We won."
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I placed the lilies against the stone, standing tall and strong.
Derek had called me a dying bitch. He had thought my weakness meant I was helpless. He forgot that surviving a chronic illness doesn't make you frail—it makes you unbreakable.
