Chapter 10 - A New Horizon
Three months later, the sun was setting over Obsidian Point, casting a warm, golden amber glow across the twenty-foot ceilings of the grand ballroom.
I stood on the balcony of my private penthouse office, holding a glass of crisp sparkling water. Down below, valets were greeting guests arriving for our annual corporate gala—a celebration of our highest-grossing fiscal year in the history of the property management firm.
My phone buzzed on the table beside me. I glanced down. It was a brief text message from an unknown prepaid number out of state.
We found an apartment. Caleb got a job at a local hardware store. Thank you for not sending us to prison.
There was no signature, but I knew it was from Bianca.
I didn't reply. I simply locked the screen, set the phone down, and let out a long, slow breath I felt like I'd been holding for most of my adult life.
The wine stain on my old thrift-store dress had long since been thrown away, but the lesson it left behind was indelible. I had spent years buying affection, funding ingrates, and shrinking myself to fit into a family that only valued me for my wallet.
Never again.
May you like
As the jazz band started playing a soft, elegant melody from inside the ballroom, I turned away from the balcony, smoothed down the skirt of my brand-new, beautifully tailored designer dress—purchased with my own hard-earned money, worn for no one but myself—and stepped back out into the glittering lights of my own world.
The evening was just beginning, and for the first time in my life, every single thing in front of me was entirely mine.
