Chapter 20 - The Woman Who Walked Away
Six months later, Nolan Pierce stood before a judge.
He pleaded guilty to stalking, assault, unlawful surveillance, conspiracy, and several financial crimes connected to SAINT.
Before sentencing to SAINT.
Before sentencing, he asked permission to speak.
I sat in the courtroom.
He did not look at me.
“I spent years believing that if someone stayed, it meant I had not really hurt them.”
His voice shook.
“I was wrong.”
He swallowed.
“I hurt Emily because I wanted control.”
No excuses.
No childhood story.
No blame.
“I am responsible.”
The judge sentenced him to prison.
I walked outside afterward and realized I felt almost nothing.
Not love.
Not hatred.
Not fear.
He had finally become what he should have been long ago.
Someone from my past.
Victor Hale received multiple life sentences after federal prosecutors connected him to murders, corruption, kidnapping, and racketeering.
Catherine received twenty-eight years.
SAINT collapsed.
Politicians resigned.
Judges were removed.
Bank accounts were seized.
Gabriel began physical rehabilitation.
Anna and I started learning how to know each other again.
Slowly.
Badly sometimes.
Honestly.
Dante dismantled most of the businesses that had made his name something Chicago whispered.
He kept the legitimate companies.
Sold others.
Walked away from several more.
One evening, I found him standing on the balcony of a quiet restaurant overlooking the river.
No ballroom.
No bodyguards hovering three feet away.
No Nolan gripping my arm.
Just Dante.
“You disappeared.”
He looked at me.
“I was giving you space.”
“For six days?”
“I’m learning.”
I smiled.
“Poorly.”
“Apparently.”
I stood beside him.
The city lights reflected on the water.
“You know something strange?”
“What?”
“The first time I kissed you, I didn’t want you.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“That is devastating.”
“I wanted Nolan to be afraid of you.”
Dante nodded.
“I know.”
“I used you as an escape route.”
“I know that too.”
I turned toward him.
“But this time is different.”
His expression softened.
“Emily.”
I placed my hand against his chest.
The same place I had touched that night in the ballroom.
Except nobody was dragging me anywhere.
Nobody was watching.
Nobody was deciding for me.
I kissed him.
Slowly.
Because I chose to.
When we separated, Dante rested his forehead against mine.
“Who am I saving you from now?”
I remembered the question that had started everything.
Then I smiled.
“No one.”
His eyes warmed.
“Good.”
I looked out across Chicago.
For years, I had believed safety meant finding a stronger person to stand between me and danger.
I had been wrong.
Safety was having a locked door I controlled.
A voice I trusted.
A life nobody else owned.
Dante had helped me find the door.
But I had been the one who walked through it.
And for the first time since Nolan Pierce entered my life, I knew exactly where I was going.
Forward.
On my own feet.
With my own choices.
May you like
And with no one dragging me anywhere ever again.
TOBE CONTINUED
