Chapter 15 - THE LIFE HE NEVER IMAGINED I'D BUILD
Three years later, I stood in the garden of our home near Washington Park.
The morning sun warmed my face.
A little girl laughed nearby.
“Mommy!”
I turned.
Our daughter, Sophie Brooks, ran toward me.
Dark curls.
Bright eyes.
A smile that looked exactly like Ethan's.
I laughed.
“Careful, sweetheart.”
Ethan appeared behind her.
He lifted Sophie into his arms.
“Trouble?”
She giggled.
“Daddy!”
I watched them.
For a moment, I remembered the day I'd stood at Denver International Airport.
Lucas had kissed me goodbye.
Promised me Switzerland.
Promised me a future.
All lies.
Then I looked at the life I'd built.
My consulting business had grown.
I worked with companies across Colorado.
I had established a scholarship program in my father's name.
And I had married a man who never made me question whether I mattered.
That evening, after Sophie fell asleep, Ethan found me sitting on the porch.
He handed me a cup of tea.
“Thinking?”
I smiled.
“A little.”
He sat beside me.
“About what?”
I looked toward the mountains.
“The day everything changed.”
He took my hand.
“Regrets?”
I thought about it.
Then shook my head.
“Not about leaving.”
Ethan smiled.
I leaned against him.
Outside, the Colorado sky turned pink and gold.
Inside, our daughter slept peacefully.
And the woman who had once cried at an airport finally understood something.
Lucas hadn't destroyed my future.
He had simply revealed that the future I'd imagined with him had never existed.
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So I built a better one.
One that belonged to me.
