Chapter 8 - The Return Home
One month later.
Ethan’s private estate sat on a bluff overlooking Puget Sound. It was a sprawling, beautiful home surrounded by pine trees, with panoramic views of the dark blue ocean water.
For four years, the house had felt cold, empty, and sterile—decorated in the sharp, unfeeling marble aesthetic that Victoria Hale had preferred.
Today, it was filled with life.
The living room had been completely redecorated with warm wooden furniture, soft yellow rugs, and framed photographs of Olivia and Lucy lining the fireplace mantle.
An old wooden porch swing—the exact replica of the one Ethan and Olivia had sat on twelve years ago—had been installed on the rear deck.
Olivia sat on the swing, wrapped in a cozy woolen blanket, watching the sunset over the water. Her health had improved dramatically; she was walking without assistance, her strength returning every day.
Ethan walked out onto the deck holding two mugs of hot chocolate. He handed one to Olivia and sat down beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"Where's Lucy?" Olivia asked, sipping her cocoa.
"In the yard with Uncle Thomas," Ethan chuckled, pointing toward the lawn. "He's trying to teach her how to throw a baseball, but I think she's currently winning the argument about the rules."
Down on the grass, Lucy was laughing as she outran the veteran police inspector, her long brown hair flying in the sea breeze.
Olivia rested her head against Ethan’s shoulder. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think this is all a dream, Ethan. I think I'm still in that tiny apartment, hiding from Victoria's checks."
Ethan squeezed her shoulder tight. "It's real, Olivia. Victoria and her father were sentenced to twenty years in federal prison yesterday. They will never touch our family again."
Olivia looked up at his face, tracing the line of his jaw. "What happens now?"
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Ethan smiled, reaching into his coat pocket. He pulled out a small, simple velvet box—not the massive, gaudy diamond ring Victoria had chosen, but a delicate, vintage platinum ring set with a single brilliant sapphire.
"Now," Ethan said softly, opening the box, "we do what we should have done twelve years ago."
