Chapter 20 - The Final Word
Later that night, long after the gala had ended and the city had quieted down into a peaceful hum, I stood alone on the private balcony of my Goethe Street penthouse.
The wind carried the faint scent of rain and distant traffic from Lake Shore Drive.
I looked down at my hand, tracing the smooth, cool metal of my signet ring. The past was a locked vault, buried beneath layers of law, steel, and absolute dominion.
There were no more phone calls in the middle of the night. No more waiting by a hospital door for a man who would never return. No more shadows haunting the corners of my home.
There was only the quiet, steady breath of my son sleeping soundly down the hall, and the boundless horizon of a future I had carved out entirely with my own hands.
Vincent Carter had left me to bleed to death in a hospital room, believing I was nothing more than a footnote in his violent story.
He was right about one thing, though.
May you like
He left me to bleed. But he forgot that when you leave a lawyer alone with an empire's ledger, you aren't getting rid of her.
You're handing her the crown.
