Chapter 4 - Scars and New Beginnings
The reception wasn't held at the country club Evelyn had booked. We canceled it.
Instead, two hours later, we gathered at a small, intimate Italian bistro downtown—the place where Daniel and I had our very first date. There were no corporate sponsors, no high-society sharks, and no cameras. Only my divorced parents, who had finally put aside their differences to cry tears of genuine pride, and a few of our closest, truest friends.
I was still wearing the dress.
I had used a pair of kitchen scissors to cut off the shredded, heavy train, turning the gown into a jagged, asymmetric knee-length dress. The safety pins remained.
Daniel raised a glass of champagne. "To my wife. The smartest, toughest forensic accountant in the world, who saved me from a lifetime of blackmail."
"To Claire!" the small room shouted.
Later that evening, Daniel and I walked through the iron gates of the Mercer Manor. The massive estate looked dark and empty. The moving trucks had already arrived, ordered by Daniel’s legal team to pack up Evelyn’s personal belongings and send them to a storage unit.
We walked into the grand foyer. The crystal chandelier hung above us, throwing sharp shadows across the marble floor.
"Are you okay?" I asked Daniel, slipping my hand into his.
"I feel like I can finally breathe for the first time in ten years," he said, looking around the house that had once felt like a prison. "She used my father's memory to lock me in a cage. Every time I tried to stand up to her, she’d threaten to release fake medical records claiming I was unstable, ensuring I’d lose my job and my reputation. I thought I was protecting our future by keeping quiet."
"You don't have to protect anything alone anymore," I told him, leaning my head against his shoulder.
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"I know," he smiled, kissing the top of my head. "But we are definitely selling this house. Every single dollar from this estate is going to fund the charity she robbed."
"I already have the paperwork ready for tomorrow morning," I whispered with a grin.
