The Walk Toward My Own Life
When the hearing adjourned, sunlight filtered through the courthouse windows with a kind of quiet grace I hadn’t felt in years. I stepped outside with my attorney trailing behind me, her voice offering congratulations, but my mind was somewhere else entirely.
I was halfway down the courthouse steps when I heard footsteps rushing behind me.
“Grace—wait!”
I turned just enough to look at him. His confidence was gone, replaced by the frantic stiffness of a man who realized he had gambled everything and lost more than he expected.
“Maybe we should settle things privately,” he pleaded. “This… spectacle wasn’t necessary.”
He swallowed hard. “I don’t want my reputation destroyed.”
Lana stood a few steps behind him, mascara streaked down her cheeks. She looked at me as though I had stolen something from her, when in truth, Daniel had undone his own plans long before we ever stepped into court.
I gave her a small, steady smile. “Your family name tore itself down.”
And then I walked away, letting the sunlight settle over me like a warm reminder that life—real life—was waiting outside the shadow of everything they had tried to take from me.
