Chapter 7 - The Italian Chandelier
Six months later.
The spring sun poured through the massive windows of the mansion foyer. I stood in the center of the marble floor, holding a glass of expensive champagne, watching a team of professional movers carefully take down the massive Italian crystal chandelier.
I was selling the mansion. It was a beautiful house, but it held too many ghosts of a woman I used to be. A woman who made herself small to protect the ego of a weak man.
I was no longer that woman.
Sterling Horizon had expanded, acquiring three new tech startups. I had launched a philanthropic foundation dedicated to helping women escape financial abuse. I was busy, thriving, and deeply, undeniably happy.
Marcus walked through the open front doors, smiling as he watched the chandelier come down.
"The buyer transferred the funds this morning," Marcus said, handing me a final piece of paperwork to sign. "You just made a three-million-dollar profit on the property."
"Good," I smiled, signing my name with a flourish. "Where are they now?"
Marcus didn't have to ask who I meant. "Daniel is working as a night-shift dispatcher for a local trucking company. The irony isn't lost on him. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment over a laundromat."
"And Evelyn?"
"She’s working the cosmetics counter at a mid-tier department store," Marcus chuckled. "I heard she got written up last week for yelling at a customer who asked for a discount."
I took a sip of my champagne, letting the sweet, crisp taste wash over me. The woman who had obsessed over status and wealth was now forced to serve the very people she used to look down on. The man who thought physical violence made him powerful was now answering phones in the dark.
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They had tried to bury me beneath their arrogance. They didn't realize I was the ground they were standing on.
I handed my empty glass to Marcus, picked up my designer purse from the console table, and walked out the front doors for the last time. I didn't look back. The future was far too bright to waste time looking at the ruins of the past.
