Chapter 7 - The Journey Home
The drive back to Chicago two days later felt like driving out of a nightmare and back into reality.
Serena sat in the passenger seat of her own SUV, watching the snowy highway stretch out endlessly beneath the pale winter sun. Marcus Vance had arranged for a secure transport team to ensure her safe departure from Connecticut, shielding her from the swarm of tabloid journalists who had somehow caught wind of the high-society embezzlement scandal rocking the Greenwich financial district.
Her phone buzzed in the center console. She glanced down. It was an email notification from her attorney containing the initial draft of the divorce settlement.
Full custody. The Greenwich estate signed over to the corporate foundation as restitution for the embezzlement. All joint accounts frozen pending forensic audits. Matthias Dre facing a grand jury indictment for corporate fraud.
She locked the screen and set the phone face down.
“You holding up okay, Mrs. Dre?” Marcus asked from behind the wheel, keeping his eyes on the snowy interstate.
“Call me Serena, Marcus,” she said, offering a faint, genuine smile. And for the first time in months, it actually felt real. “And yes. I’m holding up just fine.”
“Good,” Marcus replied. “Because the real work starts when we land. Setting up a new nursery, handling the pediatrician transfers, and getting you settled back near your old hospital network.”
“My old hospital,” Serena murmured, looking out the window at the passing snow-covered pine trees. “I almost forgot what it felt like to be useful. To actually save people instead of just managing them.”
“You saved yourself and your daughter,” Marcus said simply. “That’s a pretty good shift’s work.”
May you like
Serena placed one hand gently over her stomach. Her daughter gave a soft, reassuring kick, as if agreeing with the sentiment. The ghosts of the Dre estate—the glittering chandeliers, the cold marble floors, the hollow laughter of people who loved money more than truth—were fading fast in the rearview mirror.
Ahead of her lay Chicago, the bitter wind of Lake Michigan, and a life built entirely on her own terms.
