Chapter 10 - The Last Elevator Ride
Three years to the day after my mother passed away, I stood in the auditorium of Northwestern University School of Nursing, wearing a crisp white uniform and holding my diploma in my hand.
In the front row, sitting beside David Vance and Howard, was Lucas. He wasn't wearing a designer suit today; just a simple button-down shirt, clapping louder and prouder than anyone else in the room.
When the ceremony ended, we didn't host a grand reception. We walked back to Meridian Tower together, riding the elevator up to the sixty-eighth floor.
As the car rose smoothly through the shaft, I looked at my reflection in the mirrored wall. I wasn't the invisible night cleaner anymore. I wasn't just a survivor of debt and grief.
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I was Bailey Cooper—a woman with healing hands, a fierce heart, and a future that belonged entirely to us.
The elevator doors opened to the penthouse, and as Lucas pulled me into his arms against the backdrop of the Chicago skyline, I knew the descent was over. We had finally reached the top.
