Chapter 10 - THE LAST NAME
One year later.
I stood on the roof of the Elena International building in Manhattan.
The city was glowing in the twilight,
a sea of lights that stretched to the horizon.
I was wearing a simple black suit,
no gold silk,
no Harrington stars.
I didn't need the armor anymore.
The company was thriving,
rebuilt on a foundation of integrity and transparency.
We had funded shelters for domestic abuse survivors.
We had built schools in my mother’s name.
I had become the woman I was always meant to be.
Ethan Whitmore was serving a fifteen-year sentence in a federal penitentiary.
I had never visited him.
I had never written to him.
To me,
he was already dead.
Lucas Reed,
his former assistant,
now worked for me.
He had been the one who sent me the elevator code that night.
He had been the one who had been secretly documenting Ethan’s crimes for months.
He had saved my life,
and I had given him a new one.
Grace Sullivan was my CEO,
the sister I never had.
And Charles Harrington was my anchor,
the man who had brought me home.
My phone rang.
It was a message from an unknown number.
I hesitated for a second,
remembering the last time.
I opened it.
It was a photo of a small garden in the countryside.
A garden of white lilies.
But they weren't funeral lilies.
They were alive,
growing in the sun.
And a simple message.
You made it.
I looked at the photo and smiled.
The split in my lip was gone.
The swelling in my eye was a memory.
The pain in my ribs had faded into a quiet strength.
I walked to the edge of the roof,
feeling the wind in my hair.
I was Ava Harrington.
I was the granddaughter of Charles.
I was the daughter of Elena.
And I was the owner of my own destiny.
The story of the beaten wife was over.
The legacy of the Harrington Phoenix had just begun.
I took a deep breath,
the air of Manhattan tasting of freedom.
I wasn't a stain on the floor.
I wasn't an inconvenience.
I was the sun.
May you like
And the world was finally bright.
The end.
