The board unanimously appointed me CEO.

I renamed the company Arden Development, using my mother’s maiden name.

Then I sold the mansion Daniel and I had once shared and bought a smaller home overlooking the coast.

One spring morning, nearly three years after prison gates had first closed behind me, I sat on my porch drinking coffee while sunlight spread across the water.

Rachel called.

“Daniel lost his final appeal.”

I stayed silent for a moment.

“Claire?”

“I’m here.”

“You okay?”

I looked toward the ocean.

For years, I had imagined revenge would feel like fire.

It didn’t.

It felt like quiet.

Like waking without fear.

Like owning my name again.

I smiled.

“I’m more than okay.”

Then I ended the call, put my phone aside, and watched the tide come in.

Daniel had stolen two years of my life.

But he made one fatal mistake.

He left me alive long enough to take the rest of it back.