Chapter 25
The phone rang late at night, long after Elena had put away her work and curled into bed with a book. She almost didn’t answer. But something made her reach for it.
The voice on the other end was quiet. Hesitant.
“Elena… it’s Andrew.”
She sat up straight. The name still sent a ripple through her, but not of fear or pain anymore—just memory.
“What do you want?”
A long pause. “I know I’m the last person you want to hear from. But I needed to talk to you. Just once.”
Elena considered hanging up. But she was no longer running from the past. “Say what you need to say.”
“I messed up. Everything. I know you don’t care anymore, and you have every reason not to. But I wanted you to hear it from me—no excuses. You didn’t deserve what I did. You never did.”
Silence stretched between them.
“I lost everything,” he added, voice low. “Chloe’s gone. The company’s under investigation. Even my family cut ties with me.”
Elena took a breath. “That’s not my burden to carry anymore, Andrew. I carried enough.”
“I don’t expect forgiveness,” he said. “I just wanted to say it out loud.”
She nodded to herself. “Then you’ve said it. I hope you use what’s left of your life to make something better out of it.”
He didn’t beg. Didn’t plead. He just said, “Thank you,” and the call ended.
Elena stared at the phone. It felt like closing the final door in a hallway of shadows. Quiet. Final. Peaceful.
The next morning, Sebastian found her on the rooftop garden, watering the herbs she’d planted just weeks ago. She was in yoga pants, hair tied up, humming to herself.
“You look… light,” he said, walking up behind her.
She smiled. “I am.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Want to disappear for a while? I booked us a trip. Just the two of us. No meetings. No headlines.”
Elena raised an eyebrow. “Where?”
“Anywhere you want,” he said. “You’ve spent so long rebuilding everything. You deserve to breathe.”
She glanced around at the city skyline, her plants, the warmth in her chest. “Okay,” she said. “But just for a little while. I’ve got big things to do.”
He grinned. “That’s my girl.”
They left the next day—no social media posts, no announcements. Just two people choosing each other, quietly, away from the noise.
Elena stood by the airplane window as the clouds drifted past. She wasn’t escaping this time. She wasn’t running.
She was flying—by choice, by power, by freedom.
And this time, no one could take it from her.