Chapter 4 - The Final Ascent
The ski resort was a landscape of white, clean and untouched.
Jack stood at the top of the lift, his grin wide, his expensive jacket glinting in the morning sun.
He pulled his phone out, checking for the confirmation of the custody papers.
Instead, he found a screen full of sirens.
Every news outlet in the city was streaming the video of his nursery.
The video of his mother and Marcus, laughing about their scheme.
His grin vanished.
He tried to call, but his service was already cut.
He turned to ski down the mountain, but two figures in dark uniforms were waiting for him at the base of the lift.
I was there, too.
I stood by the SUV, my baby in my arms, watching as they approached him.
He looked at me, his eyes wide, pathetic, and pleading.
“Sarah, baby, please! They told me to! It was Marcus, he said—”
“Save it, Jack,” I said, my voice empty of anything but indifference.
“You left your newborn daughter in the freezing rain to protect your inheritance.”
“You deserve exactly what is coming.”
The authorities moved in, their faces stern.
They didn't give him a chance to speak.
They cuffed him, the silver metal biting into his wrists.
Lorraine and Marcus were already in custody, their faces hidden behind dark coats.
The empire they thought they were building had been vaporized in a single night.
I looked at the snow, at the pristine beauty of the resort, and then at my daughter.
She was asleep, unaware of the war I had waged for her future.
I didn't feel like a victim.
I felt like a conqueror.
I turned away, leaving the man I had married to face the ruin he had crafted with his own hands.
The rain of the previous night felt like a lifetime ago.
Today, the sky was clear.
Today, I was free.
And for the first time in my life, I knew that no one would ever lock me out of my own life again.
I walked toward the SUV, the keys in my hand.
May you like
The nightmare was over.
The morning had finally begun.
