Chapter 9 - THE FINAL AUDIT
I stood in the penthouse of the Voss clinic building.
It was mine now.
The court had awarded me the real estate to settle the remaining debt.
I had repurposed it.
It wasn't an aesthetics clinic anymore.
It was a foundation for women in finance.
A place where they could learn to build empires in the dark.
Marcus walked in with a final report.
"Celeste has lost her medical license,"
he said.
"The investigation into the 'self-made' funding revealed a string of ethics violations."
"She's working as a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company in the Midwest."
I nodded,
looking at the new sign being installed on the lobby floor.
Mara Thorne Foundation.
"And Adrian?"
I asked.
"He's living with his mother in a one-bedroom apartment."
"He's been trying to sell his story to the tabloids,"
"but no one is buying."
"He's old news,
Mara."
I felt a final,
lingering thread of the past snap.
I had spent years being the 'simple' wife.
I had spent years letting him take the credit.
But in the end,
the numbers were the only thing that mattered.
And the numbers were in my favor.
I walked to the window and looked at the city.
It was beautiful,
vast,
and full of potential.
I wasn't the woman who ate a wilted salad at table nineteen anymore.
I was the woman who owned the ballroom.
I was the woman who turned the lights off.
I picked up my phone and called my mother’s lawyer.
"I've recovered the necklace,"
I said.
"I'll be coming to pick it up tomorrow."
May you like
The legacy was back where it belonged.
The debt was paid.
