The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 41
Safe Return had already helped many people.
Some got timely protection outside bars. Some were brought to safety before severe weather hit. Some escaped harm disguised as a joke.
The money Tucker had transferred to me had long since run out.
The program did not stop.
More and more people were willing to keep it running.
Some donations came from hospitals and ordinary people.
Others came from Family members who chose to leave no name. They understood better than anyone what it means when your own world strips you of protection.
As for Tucker and Sloane, I rarely heard their names anymore.
Sloane was still under treatment and supervision.
Tucker had stopped trying to reach me through Chloe.
They had once treated other people’s pain like a game, and in the end, they were trapped for the rest of their lives inside the consequences they created for themselves.
That was not an ending I chose for them.
It was one they walked toward, again and again, of their own accord.
I changed my clothes and got ready to go to the hospital.
Suddenly, Peace called from behind me.
“Isolde.”
“What is it?”
“When I grow up, can I be like you?”
I turned around.
“Like me how?”
She thought about it for a long time.
“Doing what I like. And it doesn’t matter if other people say it’s boring.”
Sunlight fell across her face through the window.
I smiled.
“Of course.”
A message arrived from the hospital. The operating room was ready.
I lowered my eyes to my own hands.
Clean nails. Steady fingers.
Those hands had once been held by Tucker while he said he would protect them forever.
They had also been squeezed by him until they dislocated at my wedding.
Now, they belonged only to me.
I pushed open the door and stepped back into my own life.
This time, every day from here on would be decided by me.
Before the door had even swung shut, my phone vibrated again.
It was Sierra.
“The three-party alliance votes in seven days.”
“The Moretti Family has proposed listing Safe Return as an organization that undermines Family order.”