Past the place where I had nearly died.
And toward the life that had somehow grown from everything Victor tried to bury.
“Victor spent twenty years telling people he built an empire alone,” I said.
“In the end, all I had to do was stop carrying him.”
That was the truth he had never anticipated.
The blue folder did not destroy Victor Hale.
Neither did Melissa.
Neither did Grace.
Neither did the judge.
Victor destroyed himself the moment he mistook my silence for proof that I had no voice.
The scars merely showed everyone where to start looking.
And once they looked closely enough, they discovered what Victor had spent half his life trying to hide:
The woman he called his pack mule had never been standing behind his empire.
She had been carrying it on her back the entire time.
