Chapter 5 - The Horizon
I stood on the deck of my cottage, the salty air whipping through my hair. It was dusk, the sky a deep, bruised purple that bled into the darkening sea.
I thought about the money. The $720,000. It wasn't mine to keep, not really. I had donated it to a women’s legal defense fund, an anonymous gift that would help hundreds of other women who had been trapped in the same gilded cages I had once occupied.
I had no regrets.
Daniel was out there somewhere, a footnote in his own story. I was out here, a woman writing her own history from scratch.
I took a deep breath, the taste of salt and possibility filling my lungs. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring—the diamond band he had given me. It was heavy, cold, and entirely meaningless.
I wound my arm back and threw it as hard as I could into the surf. It vanished without a splash, swallowed by the depths.
May you like
I turned back to the house, the warm light from the window beckoning me home. My home.
The story was over, but the life was just beginning.
