Chapter 7
The money came back three weeks later.
All $4.7 million.
Plus interest.
The FBI froze the accounts, traced every transaction, and returned what was ours.
The investors got their $2.3 million back.
Vanessa, Sophia, and I split the rest.
After legal fees and taxes, we each walked away with a little over $700,000.
Life-changing money.
But none of us felt like celebrating.
Because money can’t buy back the two years I spent planning a wedding to a man who didn’t exist.
It can’t buy back the eight months Sophia spent believing she had found her soulmate.
And it can’t give Lily her father back.
But it can give us choices.
And that was something.
I sold the house in Oak Park.
Too many memories.
Too many ghosts.
I bought a condo downtown, high up, with a view of the lake. Big windows. Lots of light. No reminders of the life I almost had.
Vanessa moved out of the hotel penthouse.
She bought a house in Evanston, near the lake, with a big backyard for Lily. Good schools. A fresh start. She went back to work, part-time, at a nonprofit that helped victims of domestic abuse and financial fraud.
Sophia quit her job at the hospital.
She used her money to open a small clinic in Logan Square, providing free healthcare to women who couldn’t afford it. She called it The Three Hearts Clinic.
The Lily Foundation grew.
We hired staff. Opened an office. Started a hotline. Within six months, we had helped over two hundred women escape situations just like ours.
We were doing good.
We were healing.
But the past has a way of coming back when you least expect it.
It was a Tuesday in October.
I was in a meeting at the foundation when my assistant knocked on the door.
“Claire? There’s someone here to see you. Says he’s Ethan’s brother.”
I froze.
Kyle.
Ethan had mentioned him once or twice. Or rather, the version of Ethan that was married to Vanessa had mentioned him. To me, he had said he was an only child.
“Send him in.”
Kyle Miller was younger than Ethan. Thirties, same blue eyes, same brown hair. But where Ethan had always been polished and charming, Kyle was rough around the edges. Wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, work boots caked in mud.
He looked nervous.
“Claire? I’m Kyle. Ethan’s brother.”
“I know who you are,” I said. “What do you want?”
He sat down across from my desk.
“I know what my brother did,” he said. “To you. To Vanessa. To Sophia. To everyone. And I want to say… I’m sorry. I had no idea. None of us did. My parents are devastated. They can’t believe the son they raised could do something like this.”
I said nothing.
“I’m not here to make excuses for him,” he continued. “He made his choices. He has to live with them. But I’m here because of Lily.”
That got my attention.
“What about Lily?”
“Ethan’s trial starts next month,” Kyle said. “And he’s… he’s not doing well in prison. He’s depressed. Not eating. The guards are worried he might hurt himself. And he keeps saying the same thing over and over.”
“What?”
“That he needs to see Lily. That if he doesn’t get to say goodbye to his daughter, he has nothing left to live for.”
I leaned forward.
“Are you asking me to convince Vanessa to let Lily see him?”
Kyle nodded.
“I know what he did was unforgivable,” he said. “And I know Vanessa has every right to keep him away. But Lily… she asks about him every day. ‘When is Daddy coming home?’ ‘Why doesn’t Daddy call?’ She’s four years old, Claire. She doesn’t understand. And if something happens to Ethan in prison… if he kills himself… she’ll grow up thinking her daddy didn’t love her enough to stay. That’s not fair to her.”
He was right.
And I hated that he was right.
“I can’t make Vanessa do anything,” I said. “But I’ll talk to her.”
Kyle stood up.
“Thank you. That’s all I ask.”
He left.
I sat there for a long time, staring at the door.
Then I called Vanessa.
“Can you meet me at Sophia’s clinic? We need to talk.”
An hour later, the three of us were in the back office of the clinic, drinking bad coffee.
I told them what Kyle had said.
Vanessa was quiet for a long time.
“I don’t want him near her,” she said finally. “Every time I look at him, I see the lies. The betrayal. I don’t want that anywhere near my daughter.”
“But what if he does hurt himself?” Sophia asked gently. “Lily is already going to have to grow up without a father. Do you want her to grow up knowing he killed himself because she never got to say goodbye?”
Vanessa covered her face with her hands.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I just don’t know. I want to protect her from him. But what if I’m protecting her too much? What if I’m making it worse?”
I reached across the table and took her hand.
“Whatever you decide,” I said, “we’re with you. All the way.”
Sophia nodded.
“Always.”
Vanessa thought about it for three days.
Three of the longest days of all our lives.
On the fourth day, she called us.
“I’m going to let her see him,” she said. “But on my terms. One hour. Supervised. No physical contact. And if he says one thing that upsets her, we leave. Immediately.”
The visit was scheduled for the following Saturday.
At the correctional facility in downstate Illinois.
All three of us went.
Vanessa, Lily, Sophia, and me.
And Kyle.
He had asked to come, to support his brother, and Vanessa had agreed.
The visiting room was cold. Fluorescent lights. Plastic chairs. A thick glass partition separating the inmates from their visitors.
Ethan was brought in.
He looked terrible.
Thinner than ever. Pale. His hair was a mess. His eyes were red-rimmed.
When he saw Lily, his face lit up.
It was the same smile I had fallen in love with.
The same smile Vanessa had married.
The same smile Sophia had believed in.
And for a second, I could almost forget everything he had done.
Almost.
“DADDY!” Lily pressed her hands against the glass.
“Hi, baby girl.” Ethan’s voice cracked. He pressed his own hands against the glass, matching hers. “God, you’ve gotten so big.”
They talked for forty-five minutes.
About her preschool. About her new puppy. About the princess costume she was going to wear for Halloween.
Ethan asked all the right questions.
Listened to all her stories.
Laughed at all her jokes.
For forty-five minutes, he was just a father talking to his daughter.
And then the guard signaled that time was almost up.
Ethan’s face fell.
“Lily, honey?” he said. “Daddy has something very important to tell you. Okay?”
“Okay, Daddy.”
“Daddy loves you more than anything in the whole world. More than the sun and the moon and all the stars. And no matter where I am, no matter how far away I am, I will always be with you. In here.” He tapped his chest. “And in here.” He tapped the glass over her heart.
Lily nodded seriously.
“I love you too, Daddy.”
“Can you promise me something?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Promise me you’ll be good for Mommy. And that you’ll be brave. And that you’ll never forget how much your daddy loves you.”
“I promise, Daddy.”
The guard came over.
“Time’s up.”
Ethan stood up.
He looked at Vanessa.
His eyes were full of tears.
“Thank you,” he mouthed through the glass.
Vanessa just nodded.
We left.
As we walked out to the car, Lily chattered happily about how nice it was to see Daddy.
Vanessa held her hand, smiling through her tears.
Sophia and I walked behind them.
And Kyle walked beside me.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “For talking to her. For making this happen.”
I looked at him.
He was nothing like his brother.
Nothing at all.
“You’re welcome,” I said.
We reached the car.
Kyle opened the door for Lily.
As he did, his hand brushed mine.
May you like
And for the first time in a very long time, I felt something I thought I would never feel again.
A spark.
