Chapter 11
Months passed.
The chaos faded. The media moved on. Michelle Lang was convicted and sentenced. Gregory Chen too. The powerful family behind them lost its influence, piece by piece, like a crumbling statue once worshipped by many.
Eric took over what was left—not to rebuild the empire, but to dismantle it from the inside. He sold off corrupt divisions, donated dirty money to charities, and made sure those who had been silenced before were now heard. He became a new kind of businessman. One with a conscience. One with regrets.
Still, something was missing.
Her.
Rachel had vanished completely. No trace, no sightings. Even Eric’s best investigators found nothing. It was as if she’d melted into the world, living quietly in some corner far away from the noise.
And she had.
Rachel now lived in a sleepy coastal town, where no one knew her name. She rented a small cottage by the sea, worked at a bookstore, and spent her evenings walking along the shoreline barefoot, letting the wind tangle her hair. Here, she was just another face. No past. No legacy. Just peace.
Sometimes, she thought about Eric. About the man he’d become. About the man he was trying to be. Her fingers would hover over the phone, tempted to call, to say something—anything. But she never did.
Until one rainy afternoon.
She was shelving books when the doorbell jingled.
She turned, expecting the usual delivery guy.
Instead, there he was.
Eric.
Drenched from head to toe, hair dripping, coat soaked, but eyes steady and warm.
Rachel froze. Her heart slammed against her ribs.
He said nothing at first. Just looked at her like he’d finally found the missing piece of himself.
“How…?” she whispered.
“Took me a while,” he replied, voice rough from the cold—or maybe something else. “I wasn’t even sure if you wanted to be found. But I had to try.”
Rachel swallowed hard. “Why now?”
Eric stepped closer. “Because I’m not asking you to come back to that world. I’m asking if I can stay in yours.”
She stared at him, breath caught in her throat.
“I don’t need fancy,” he said, his voice softer now. “I don’t need power. I just need real. And you… you’re the only real thing I’ve ever known.”
The bookstore was silent, the storm whispering against the windows.
Rachel looked into his eyes—and finally let the walls fall.
She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.
He held her tightly, like he never wanted to let go again.
And just like that, the past no longer mattered.
They had both broken.
But together… they had a chance to heal.