Chapter 8 - The Aftermath
The news broke at noon.
Hale Systems Heir Accused of Multi-Million Dollar Fraud. Wedding Night Scandal Rocks City’s Elite.
The photos of Ethan being served with court papers were plastered on every screen in the city. The hotel conglomerate he and Vanessa had worked so hard to "protect" began to fold within hours.
By evening, Vanessa’s social media accounts were deactivated. Monica had disappeared. Ethan had barricaded himself in the apartment he thought he was going to take from me.
I stayed in my father’s home. It was the safest place I had ever been.
I sat by the window, watching the rain beat against the glass. The silence in the house was no longer heavy. It was clean.
"Are you okay?" my father asked, entering the room with two cups of tea.
"I’m exhausted," I admitted.
"You survived," he said, handing me a cup.
"I did."
"What will you do now?"
I thought about the recordings, the court filings, and the thousands of dollars I had already spent on the initial legal salvo. I thought about the emptiness of the apartment I had shared with a stranger.
"I’m not going to be an archivist anymore," I said.
"What do you want to be?"
I looked at the black folder on the table. It contained the names of other women Ethan had manipulated.
"I want to make sure the next woman who hides under a bed doesn't have to call her father," I said. "I want to be the one she calls."
"Then you have a lot of work to do," my father said with a rare, proud smile.
May you like
"I know."
And for the first time in my life, I wasn't just a daughter or a wife. I was a force.
