Chapter 10 - The Echo of Peace
The ocean was calm that evening. Evelyn and Sophie sat on the sand, watching the sun disappear behind the horizon, painting the water in brilliant, fleeting colors of orange and gold.
Sophie was drawing in the sand with a stick. She drew a house—not the giant, cold mansion she remembered, but a small, warm cottage with flowers in the yard.
"That's our home," Sophie said, looking up with a bright, fearless smile.
Evelyn nodded, feeling the cool salt air against her skin. She looked back at the city in the distance, a place that seemed like a fading nightmare from another life.
She knew that somewhere, in a cold cell, Preston was still waiting for someone to save him. She knew her parents were probably still talking about their legacy, unaware that it had been replaced by a park for children.
But it didn't matter.
She had Sophie. She had her peace. She had the truth.
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And as the last of the sun slipped away, Evelyn finally, truly, let go. She didn't look back. She didn't worry about the ghosts. She just watched her daughter run toward the water, free, unburdened, and entirely her own.
The nightmare was over. The morning had finally arrived.
