Chapter 9 - The Family Bible
Six months later.
The grand Beverly Hills estate looked entirely different in the warm light of a Sunday afternoon. The oppressive, cold atmosphere that Charles’s paranoia and Vivian’s greed had created was gone.
The windows were open. Music played softly from the terrace.
I sat on the patio furniture, nursing a cup of coffee, looking out over the sprawling green lawn.
I wasn't wearing a borrowed coat, and I wasn't wondering how I was going to pay my rent. I was wearing a simple, elegant sundress, completely at peace in my new home.
Daniel walked out onto the terrace, carrying two plates of pancakes. He was smiling. A real, genuine smile that reached his eyes.
“Breakfast is served, co-chairman,” Daniel teased, setting a plate in front of me.
“Thank you,” I laughed, taking a bite.
Running a multibillion-dollar company together had been a steep learning curve, but Daniel and I had become an unbreakable team. We had purged the board of Arthur’s cronies, restructured the charitable foundations, and turned Westwood Industries into something we could both be proud of.
Arthur Kane was serving life without the possibility of parole in a federal penitentiary.
Vivian Vance was serving ten years for fraud and conspiracy.
Thomas had survived his gunshot wound and was serving twenty-five years to life for the manslaughter of Sarah Westwood. He had written a letter to Emma from prison, but Daniel and I had agreed to put it in a safety deposit box until she was eighteen.
“Dad! Lily!”
We both turned as Emma ran out onto the terrace, accompanied by a golden retriever puppy we had adopted a month ago.
Emma looked healthy, happy, and radiant. The shadows that used to haunt her eyes were completely gone. She ran up and hugged Daniel tightly around the neck.
“Morning, sweetie,” Daniel smiled, kissing her forehead. He looked at her with such profound, unconditional love that it made my heart ache in the best possible way. Blood didn't matter. He was her father, through and through.
Emma pulled back and looked at me. “Lily, are we still going to the museum today?”
“Absolutely,” I promised. “Right after you finish your homework.”
Emma groaned dramatically, but she was smiling as she ran off the terrace with the puppy trailing behind her.
Daniel sat down next to me, watching her go.
“She’s doing so well,” he said softly.
“She is,” I agreed. “We all are.”
Daniel reached into his pocket. “I found something yesterday, when we were clearing out the last of Arthur’s old files from the basement.”
He handed me a small, velvet jewelry box.
I opened it.
Inside, gleaming perfectly, were my mother’s teardrop pearl earrings. The police had finally released them from evidence.
“I thought you should have them back,” Daniel said.
I touched the pearls, tears pricking my eyes. My mother had died thinking she was alone, fighting to protect me from a world of monsters. But she hadn't failed. I had survived, and I had found the family she had always wanted for me.
“Thank you, Daniel,” I whispered, putting the earrings on.
We sat in comfortable silence for a moment, listening to Emma laugh as the puppy chased a butterfly across the grass.
I stood up and walked back into the grand foyer.
Resting on a beautiful mahogany pedestal in the center of the hall, exactly where it belonged, was the old, cracked leather family Bible.
I walked over to it and ran my hand over the faded gold lettering on the cover. The spine was still slightly torn from where Vivian had tried to destroy it, but it held together.
I opened the heavy cover to the first page. The dedication page.
Under Charles’s name, Daniel’s name, and Emma’s name, a new line had been carefully written in fresh, black ink.
May you like
Lily Westwood.
I smiled, closing the book. The past was finally laid to rest, and for the first time in my life, I knew exactly who I was, and exactly where I belonged.
