Chapter 3 - The Audit of Souls
The trial was a whirlwind of public humiliation for the Carter family. Robert and Diane tried to claim insanity, citing "parental concern," but the evidence Maya Chen had compiled was unassailable.
I stood in the courtroom every day, a silent witness to the unravelling of my childhood. I watched my father look for me in the gallery, his face pleading, but I remained an anchor of silence. I didn't hate him. Hate required too much energy. I was simply empty of him.
After the final sentencing, when the gavel fell, the weight I had carried since that night on the porch finally evaporated.
Daniel met me outside the courthouse. The press was there, a swarm of cameras and microphones, but he shielded me from them with a quiet, efficient force.
"They're done," I said as we climbed into the car.
"They are," Daniel agreed.
We drove to the lakefront, a place we used to visit when we were just starting out—when he was just a junior executive and I was an assistant who didn't care about his last name.
"I bought a house," he said suddenly. "Not a mansion. A home. With a yard. Away from the city, away from the Whitmores and the Carters. Just for us."
I looked at him, surprised. "You'd give up all this? The empire?"
"It never mattered, Grace," he said. "The moment I heard you were pregnant, the company became secondary. When I heard they had taken you... it became nothing."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a simple, platinum band. "I don't want to be an executive anymore. I want to be a father. I want to be your partner. I want us to start over."
I looked at the ring, then at Emma, who was fast asleep in her car seat. I realized that my father had tried to trade me for money, but he had failed to see the one thing that actually had value.
"I'll marry you," I said, my voice finally finding its strength. "But on one condition."
"Anything."
May you like
"No secrets. No 'family business.' Just us."
"Deal," he whispered, pressing his forehead against mine.
