Chapter 3: A New Beginning

From start to finish, he never asked if anyone else had come for me that day.

He just assumed, with that same old arrogance, that I’d always be waiting. Like my loyalty was a debt he could collect.

Like he was sure I’d never leave with someone else.

He never even considered I might have a choice—that someone else might see me as more than a secret.

But he didn’t know—I’d already agreed to that sergeant, David Young.

I said yes to the man with honest eyes and workingman’s hands, not the golden boy with empty promises. That thought gave me a flicker of warmth in the cold.

On the day he marries the senator’s daughter, I’ll get married too.

Not a fairy tale—just a quiet start somewhere new. Maybe in Ohio, I’d finally be free.

Tomorrow, I’d have to choose—freedom, or another kind of prison.