“Many were familiar faces, Harrison victims, now survivors, each carrying their own stories of loss and resilience. But they weren’t here just to receive restitution. They were here to help guide it to ensure that what happened to them never happened to anyone else. Leah, now in remission thanks to proper treatment, stood beside me.
The proper medical care funded by the recovered assets had reversed much of the damage done by the Harrison’s deliberate poisoning. Did you ever think when you married Matthew that it would end like this? No, I admitted, watching as Clare led a workshop on recognizing financial abbey, but I never thought Brooke would help us fix it either.
That had been the final surprise in the hidden rooms journals, dozens of them, chronicling Brook’s struggle with what she’d become. The last entry written the night before the restaurant confrontation read simply, “I see myself in Rebecca, but I see who I could have been, who I should have been.
Perhaps it’s not too late for one last choice.” Matthew and Brooke both took plea deals, providing evidence that helped prosecute others involved in their schemes. Malcolm Jones turned states witness. The Harrison Empire crumbled, but something better rose from its ashes. Inside my office, once Brook’s study, Leah’s lighthouse painting hung proudly.
I understood now why she’d painted that double image. The truth above reflecting a deeper truth below, just like Brook’s final act had reflected her original self. The woman she’d been before. Fear and rage twisted her into something else. My phone buzzed. A text from Kate. Another one just came forward. A victim from Charles’s time.
