Then, I navigated to the deep security settings of my email client. I entered the IP address and the routing number of the prison’s communication server, and I permanently, irrevocably blocked it. I ensured his digital ghost could never reach my inbox, my phone, or my consciousness ever again.
I closed the laptop, the screen going black, reflecting my own calm, steady face in the glass.
I walked out of the home office and into the bright, sunlit living room. Lily looked up from her towering stack of wooden blocks, her face breaking into a massive, joyful, gap-toothed smile the absolute second she saw me. She dropped a blue block and reached her chubby arms up into the air, demanding to be held.
I swooped her up into my arms, burying my face in her soft hair, kissing her warm cheek, holding her tightly against my chest. She let out a loud, musical giggle that filled the entire house with light.
I smiled, a genuine, profound, powerful expression of absolute peace.
Derek had leaned back in his hospital chair, arrogant, wealthy, and cruel, believing he had to violently show a vulnerable, bleeding woman who the boss of the family was. He thought he was untouchable. He thought his money was a shield against consequences.
But as I looked out the massive bay window at the beautiful, secure, impenetrable empire I had built for my daughter, the undisputed architect of my own brilliant life realized the most terrifying truth of all.
The only thing more dangerous than a monster hiding in the dark is the quiet, patient, observant woman who learns exactly how to build the trap that kills him.
