Chapter 2 - The Blocked Letters and the Ghost of the PastAs the Boeing 737 fought through heavy winter turbulence over the Rockies, Cassandra unfolded the stained letter from her bag, letting me read the words I had been meant to read thirty months ago.
Luke leaned sleepily against my shoulder, his small hand instinctively curling around my index finger in a gesture so hauntingly familiar it brought a sudden, burning sting to my eyes. Violet had finally quieted, dozing with her face pressed into Cassandra’s coat. Whispering over the low hum of the jet engines, Cassandra revealed the grim reality of those intervening years: working two jobs while pregnant, surviving eviction notices, and raising our children without a support network, all while watching my face plastered across financial magazines and tech blogs as the golden boy of Silicon Valley. She hadn't reached out again because pride, coupled with the invisible barrier of wealth and power I had built, convinced her that I had deliberately chosen my company over our love. Looking at the tired lines around her eyes and the faded simplicity of her clothes, I realized that while I had conquered the corporate world, I had utterly bankrupted my soul. The $780 million merger waiting in Denver wasn't a triumph; it was a monument to everything I had carelessly thrown away.
