Chapter 10 - The Horizon
Months later, the city was different. The riverfront terminals were thriving, the new administration was making genuine progress on the city’s infrastructure, and the old guard had been effectively dismantled.
Harper sat in her office—the office that was now hers, in a building that was now theirs.
The door opened. Roman walked in. He looked tired, but he also looked peaceful.
“The merger is complete,” he said.
Harper looked up. “And?”
“And we’re the only ones left.”
He walked over to her desk and sat on the edge of it, looking down at her.
“Are you happy, Harper?”
Harper looked around the office, then back at him. She thought about the woman she had been at that ballroom, the woman who had let Connor Hayes dictate the terms of her existence.
“I’m not just happy,” she said, reaching up to take his hand. “I’m finally free.”
Roman pulled her to her feet, his arms coming around her, holding her close in the middle of the quiet, powerful room.
“We have a city to run, Harper,” he said.
“I know,” she replied, leaning into him. “Let’s get to work.”
Outside, the city of Chicago stretched out before them, a vast, complex, and beautiful landscape that was finally, truly, in their hands. The struggle had been long, the costs had been high, and the journey had been anything but predictable. But as Harper looked out the window, she realized that she wouldn't change a single thing.
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They had built an empire not just on power, but on the firm conviction that they were the ones who could actually fix the world. And for the first time, the future didn't look like a series of hurdles.
It looked like an horizon.
