Chapter 14 - Echoes From The Past
Success is the ultimate revenge, but the ghosts of the past rarely stay buried quietly. Three months after Julian Vance entered my life as a strategic partner, a handwritten letter arrived at my penthouse security desk, bearing no return address and postmarked from the state penitentiary.
I sat at my minimalist marble kitchen island, holding the heavy ivory envelope between my fingers. The handwriting was jagged, frantic, and unmistakably Daniel's.
With a cold sense of detachment, I slit open the envelope and unfolded the cheap lined prison paper.
*'Catherine,*
*I know you will probably burn this without reading it, but I have nothing left to lose. Prison is a waking nightmare. Every day here is a brutal reminder of what I threw away. Lorraine is living in a cramped studio apartment downtown, broke, bitter, and blaming everyone but herself for our ruin. She had a minor stroke last week.*
*I never meant for it to go this far, Catherine. Evelyn poisoned my mind, trapped me with debts, and convinced me that you were simply an obstacle in our path. You built this empire, and I was just a coward riding your coattails. I deserve every day of this cell. But I am begging you—just once—have mercy on your former husband. Drop the secondary civil restitution lawsuits so I can breathe when I finally get out in fifteen years.'*
I folded the letter slowly, my expression completely unmoved. No wave of pity washed over me. No lingering sorrow for the man who had poured scalding coffee over my hand and laughed while his mother humiliated me.
Some wounds run too deep for forgiveness. Some betrayals forfeit all rights to mercy.
I walked over to the sleek stainless-steel sink, struck a match, and dropped the prison letter into a metal bowl, watching the flames consume every word until it turned into a heap of gray ash. I swept the ashes down the drain, turning away without a backward glance.
May you like
My phone chimed on the counter. It was a text message from Julian: *'Dinner at 8:00 p.m. at Le Bernardin. Wear something breathtaking. We have a global merger to celebrate.'*
I smiled, picked up my coat, and walked out the door into the brilliant evening lights of the city.
