Chapter 10 - Forever CrownedYears passed, but the legacy of Protocol 7 remained legendary in the corporate halls of Sterling Apex Industries.
It became a whispered myth among executives—a reminder that power was never guaranteed, arrogance was a fatal flaw, and underestimating someone based on their clothes, their background, or their silence was the most dangerous mistake a person could make.
Diane Morrison spent her remaining years in federal custody, a ghost forgotten by the high society she had once obsessed over. Brendan drifted from city to city, a perpetual shadow of the arrogant Vice President he used to be, forever haunted by the memory of the woman he had thrown away.
And me?
I sat in the executive boardroom on the fiftieth floor, watching my five-year-old daughter, Maya, color pictures of dinosaurs on the massive conference table while my legal and financial teams briefed me on our next global acquisition.
She looked up, clutching a pink crayon, with those same sharp, intelligent eyes that had once stared down an empire.
“Mommy, are we powerful?” Maya asked innocently.
May you like
I smiled, walking over to pick her up and lifting her high into the air so she could see the glittering skyline of Chicago stretching out beneath us as far as the eye could see.
“We aren't just powerful, sweetheart,” I whispered, kissing her forehead as the sunlight wrapped around us like a crown. “We are survivors. And this entire world belongs to us.”
