Chapter 15
Chapter 16: The Bridge of Ashes
Six months later, I received an email from an address I hadn't seen in over a decade.
Nicole.
We met at a small, quiet coffee shop on the edge of the city.
When she walked in, I almost didn't recognize her. The nervous, overly-styled girl who used to flinch at her mother’s shadow was gone. Nicole wore a simple, comfortable sweater, her hair pulled back into a messy bun. She looked tired, but it was the good kind of tired—the kind that comes from living a real life.
She sat down across from me, wrapping her hands around a mug of green tea.
"You look beautiful, Olivia," Nicole said, her voice soft and genuine. "You look... powerful."
"Thank you, Nicole," I smiled gently. "You look well."
She nodded, staring down at her tea. "I wanted to see you because I needed to close the final door. Helen passed away last week."
The news hung in the air. Helen Vance, the matriarch who had covered up her son's abuse, who had demanded my wedding ring, was gone.
"Richard died of a stroke three years ago," Nicole continued, her tone entirely detached. "After the scandal, the family lost everything. The money, the status, the friends. They died in a small, rented apartment, completely alone. I paid for the funeral, but I didn't attend."
I looked at Nicole. She had broken the generational curse of the Vance family, just as I had broken mine.
"I have a daughter now," Nicole said, looking up, tears welling in her eyes. "Her name is Maya. She's three. Every time I look at her, I think of you and Grace. I think of the courage it took for you to leave."
I reached across the small wooden table and took Nicole’s hand.
"You left too, Nicole," I reminded her softly. "You handed over the evidence. You sold the ring. You chose the truth over the inheritance. You saved yourself."
May you like
A tear slipped down her cheek, and she nodded, squeezing my hand tightly.
We finished our coffee in a comfortable, healing silence. When we parted ways on the sidewalk outside, we didn't promise to keep in touch. We didn't need to. We had both survived the fire, and we were both entirely focused on tending to our own gardens.
