Chapter 20 - Ten Years Later
A decade after the wedding, the story was still the stuff of Chicago legend. Fairchild Meridian was smaller, completely transparent, and deeply boring—exactly as Julian and Nora wanted it. Ophelia died in prison twelve years after the wedding, leaving behind a letter that offered fragments of an apology, a tragic testament to a woman who had confused fear with love.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Nora stood on the balcony of the Riverlight Center—formerly the Vesper Crown ballroom—watching her children, Miles and Elise, paint a mural with families supported by the company's restitution fund. Julian came to stand beside her, looking down at the Chicago River. “Thinking about the ring?” he asked, a small smile playing on his lips. “No,” Nora replied, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Thinking about what replaced it.” The diamond was gone, the empire was broken, but in its place, they had built something real. Nora Ellis had taught a city that the most dangerous thing you can throw away is not a three-million-dollar ring. It is the truth.
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