Chapter 10 - The Celebration
The private dining room at Canlis had floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the sparkling waters of Lake Union and the snow-capped peak of Mount Rainier in the far distance.
The table was set for twelve.
There were white linen napkins, delicate crystal wine glasses, and a magnificent floral centerpiece of white hydrangeas and eucalyptus.
Sitting around the table were the people who had populated the life I had built with my own hands: Marcus Vance and his wife, Sarah; Chloe, who had just been promoted to associate property manager; my team leads from Vanguard; and David, an architect with the city preservation society whose laughter had become the soundtrack of my weekends for the past two years.
It was my thirty-fourth birthday.
The waiter stepped into the private room carrying a silver platter. Atop it sat a three-layer lemon chiffon cake, frosted in pale white buttercream with delicate spun-sugar ribbons around the base.
The piped script across the top read: *Happy 34th Birthday, Hannah.*
David looked over at me from across the table, his smile warm and steady. “Make a wish before the candles melt the icing, Carter.”
“I don’t need to wish for anything,” I said, looking around the room at the smiling faces. “Everything I wanted, I already went out and got.”
A chorus of laughter and cheers broke out as I leaned forward and blew out the candles in a single breath.
The room erupted into applause. Chloe raised her champagne flute. “To Hannah! The only boss who can renegotiate a maritime lease and close a twenty-million-dollar acquisition before lunch!”
“To Hannah!” they echoed, clinking their glasses together, the crystal ringing clear and bright in the warm room.
As the waiter began slicing the cake, my phone vibrated once in my evening clutch beneath the table.
I pulled it out discreetly, glancing down at the illuminated screen.
It was 5:18 p.m.
The exact minute Rebecca had called nine years ago to report her fake burglary.
The caller ID displayed a number I now knew by heart: *Home – Elm Street.*
I looked at the screen for a moment. My heart rate didn't spike. My stomach didn't drop. There was no dread, no phantom pain, no phantom obligation.
I excused myself from the table with a soft smile to David, stepped out into the quiet, carpeted hallway overlooking the wine cellar, and pressed the green button.
I brought the phone to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Hannah?” It was my father’s voice. It sounded steady, clear, and remarkably peaceful. “Did we catch you at a bad time?”
Through the receiver, I could hear the faint sound of my mother’s voice in the background: *“Is she there, Richard? Did she answer?”*
“No, Dad,” I said, looking out through the hallway window at the lights of the boats drifting across Lake Union. “You caught me at the perfect time. I’m having dinner with friends.”
There was a brief pause on the other end—a soft, grateful intake of breath.
“We won’t keep you, sweetheart,” Richard said, his voice thick with an emotion that was pure, uncomplicated, and clean. “We just... Mom and I wanted to call and say happy birthday.”
“Happy birthday, Hannah!” my mother’s voice chimed in from the extension, sounding closer, brighter than it had in a decade. “We love you so much. We’re so proud of you.”
I closed my eyes, letting the words wash over me.
They didn't erase the past. They didn't rebuild the lost years, or undo the damage Rebecca had wrought upon their lives. But they were true. For the first time, they were completely, unreservedly true.
“Thank you, Mom,” I said softly. “Thank you, Dad.”
“Go back to your dinner, Hannah,” my father said with a quiet smile in his voice. “Enjoy your cake.”
“I will,” I replied. “I’ll call you on Sunday, Dad.”
“We’d like that,” he said. “We’d like that very much.”
I hung up the phone, slipped it back into my clutch, and paused for a second to look at my reflection in the dark window glass.
May you like
I was no longer the girl sitting on the stairs in a royal blue dress, listening to her parents’ car pull away into the Ohio night. I was a woman who had survived the storm, conquered the wreckage, and built her own fortress of peace upon solid ground.
I smoothed the silk of my dress, turned my back on the dark glass, and walked back into the room where my people were waiting to celebrate me.
