BURIED BEFORE BREATHING

The Vance estate was sold two months later.

Adam refused to keep a single brick of the mansion where lies had festered behind closed doors. Every asset associated with Victoria’s fraudulent takeover was liquidated by court order, with the entirety of the recovered funds donated to establish a foundation dedicated to protecting vulnerable patients in private healthcare facilities.

They bought a modest, clapboard cottage overlooking the Atlantic coastline in Maine—a place filled with sea breezes, open skies, and the sound of crashing waves.

Here, there were no locked drawers. There were no secrets buried beneath marble floors.

On a warm afternoon in late summer, Elena stood on the wooden back deck, leaning against the railing. Her hair had grown past her shoulders, blowing freely in the salt air. She watched Lily running along the shoreline below, chasing sandpipers as the tide rolled gently over the wet sand.

Adam stepped up beside her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin against her shoulder.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked softly.

"About how close we came to never having this," Elena replied, placing her hand over his. "And about how love is the only thing strong enough to break through iron and concrete."

"You never gave up," Adam said.