Chapter 6 - A New Foundation
Six months later, the wind off Lake Michigan was warm, carrying the scent of blooming lilacs and spring rain across the city.
The grand opening of the Fields-Beck Community Center on Wells Street was packed with reporters, local politicians, volunteers, and dozens of families who finally had a warm place to sleep, eat, and rebuild their lives.
There were no billionaire donors sipping champagne in tuxedos. There were no fake smiles for society columns, no cold marble floors, and no shadow of Preston Beck—who was currently facing federal indictment and awaiting trial in a federal correctional facility upstate.
Instead, the courtyard was filled with music, laughter, and the sound of children running across green grass.
On a makeshift stage beneath an arbor of white flowers, Kennedy—now wearing a bright yellow sundress and holding a fistful of balloons—stood proudly beside her mother and me.
She looked out over the crowd of hundreds of cheering people, her sharp green eyes shining with absolute wonder.
“Mommy,” Kennedy whispered loudly, leaning into Piper’s skirt. “Is this our house?”
Piper knelt down, smoothing our daughter’s dark curls, her own eyes bright with unshed tears of joy.
“No, baby,” Piper smiled, kissing Kennedy’s forehead. “It’s everyone’s house.”
I stood beside them, wrapping my arm around Piper’s waist and pulling her close against my side. We looked out at the city skyline—the same skyline that had once tried to bury us in ice, now glowing in the golden light of a summer evening.
May you like
My old life—the four-hundred-million-dollar company, the empty penthouse, the suitable fiancée, the cold perfection of a world built on lies—was gone.
And looking down at the two people who had pulled me out of the dark, I knew I had never been richer in my life.
