Chapter 7 - Unbroken and Forever HomeOne year after the night at the hospital, the winter sky over Chicago was clear, dark, and filled with a million twinkling stars.
Inside our Lincoln Park townhouse, the floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the glowing, golden grid of the city below.
A massive ten-foot Christmas tree stood in the living room, decorated with silver ribbon, twinkling white lights, and hundreds of glass ornaments.
Sitting on a soft cashmere rug near the blazing stone fireplace was seven-year-old Emma, giggling happily as she opened a fresh box of wooden art supplies, while her golden retriever napped beside her.
I stood near the panoramic window wearing a comfortable cream cashmere sweater and trousers, holding a warm cup of cocoa, looking out at the city skyline.
There were no three AM phone calls from mistresses. There were no husbands abandoning feverish daughters in cold bedrooms. There were no tears swallowed in dark halls.
The quiet, patient wife was dead forever. The sovereign mother had claimed her throne.
Marcus walked into the living room, setting two fresh pastries on the coffee table, smiling as he watched Emma draw her first sunset on fresh paper.
I looked at my daughter, then turned my eyes back to the vast, dark sky stretching over Lake Michigan into the unbroken horizon.
May you like
Vincent had thought his money, his power, and his feared name would force me to stay in the dark forever. He had forgotten that a mother protecting her child is a force no empire can ever break.
And standing under the vast, unbroken sky, wrapped in the warmth of my own home, holding my daughter in my arms, I knew that our dark nights were over—our peace, our lives, and our future were finally, beautifully, and forever home.
