Chapter 10
Six months later.
I stood in the lobby of Carter Industries, looking up at the big bronze plaque on the wall with my dad’s name on it.
The company was mine again.
All the assets Ethan had stolen were returned, plus millions in damages.
I’d spent the last six months rebuilding it.
Hiring new staff, updating the old systems, starting a new foundation that funded domestic violence shelters and legal help for survivors.
I loved it.
I was good at it.
My dad would have been proud.
“Ms. Carter?”
I turned around.
My assistant was standing there, holding a stack of papers.
“Your three o’clock is here. And your mom called—she said dinner’s at seven, and you better not be late.”
I laughed, taking the papers.
“Tell her I’ll be there. And send the three o’clock in.”
The three o’clock was a woman named Maria, who’d left her abusive husband two months prior, needing help with legal fees and a safe place to stay.
I sat with her for an hour, listening to her story, telling her she was brave, telling her she wasn’t alone.
I gave her a check from the foundation, the number to my personal cell, told her to call any time, day or night.
When she left, I leaned back in my chair, looking out the big window at the Dallas skyline.
A soft knock on the door.
J leaned against the frame, holding two cups of coffee.
“Ready to go home?” he said, smiling.
I stood up, grabbing my bag.
“More than ready. Mom said she’s making her famous lasagna.”
We walked out to the truck, J holding the door open for me.
The drive to our new house took twenty minutes.
A small, warm ranch on ten acres, not too far from the city.
No high ceilings.
No marble floors.
No bad memories.
Just a big kitchen, a porch with rocking chairs, a garden my mom spent all day in.
We pulled up the driveway, and my mom was on the porch, waving, a apron on that said “World’s Best Grandma” (a gift from me, even though she wasn’t a grandma yet).
We ate dinner at the big wooden table in the kitchen, laughing, talking about the day.
My mom was in full remission now.
Her hair was growing back, curly and soft, her cheeks pink and healthy.
She was the happiest I’d ever seen her.
After dinner, J and I went out to the porch.
The sun was setting, painting the sky purple and gold.
He handed me a glass of lemonade, cold and sweet.
We sat in the rocking chairs, quiet, watching the fireflies come out.
J reached over, took my hand in his.
I didn’t pull away.
I laced my fingers through his.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he said, soft.
I looked at him.
At the scar through his eyebrow, the crinkles around his eyes when he smiled, the way he looked at me like I was the most important thing in the world.
“I was just thinking,” I said, smiling. “About how scared I was, six months ago. About how I thought I’d never be happy again. Never be safe. Never be loved.”
J squeezed my hand.
“And now?”
I looked out at the garden, at my mom through the kitchen window, washing dishes, humming to herself.
I looked at the scars on my other hand, faint now, almost gone.
I thought about Ethan, in prison, where he could never hurt anyone again.
I thought about Maria, and all the other women I’d helped, all the ones I would help in the future.
I looked back at J.
“Now,” I said, voice soft, sure, “I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I have my mom. I have my dad’s company. I have the foundation. And I have you.”
J leaned in, slow, like he was giving me time to pull away.
I didn’t.
He kissed me, soft and sweet, the fireflies dancing around us.
When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine.
“I love you, Lila Carter,” he said, quiet. “I’ve loved you since the day your dad brought you to the office when you were sixteen, and you yelled at me for eating the last of the chocolate chip cookies.”
I laughed, tears in my eyes.
“I love you too, Jax Reed,” I said.
We sat there for a long time, holding hands, watching the stars come out.
I was safe.
I was loved.
I was confident, strong, unbreakable.
The girl who’d been beaten two hundred times on a cold marble floor was gone.
In her place was a woman who’d fought back.
Who’d won.
Who’d built a life full of light and love and hope.
May you like
And for the first time in my life, I knew.
I was home.
