---- Chapter 11 Olivia POV: Years pass. Carter Creative Designs becomes one of the most respected boutique agencies in Portland. | have a small office downtown, a team of talented designers. My legitimate front is a fortress. | buy a small bungalow with a garden, a place that is entirely mine. | start dating Ben, the bookstore owner, the former Soldier who gave me Ethan's journal that night. It's quiet and easy. We go for hikes, we read in comfortable silence. There is no drama, no power plays. He is my Protector, part of my Found Family. The old family ties are well and truly severed. 1 Maya visits often. She tells me Ethan's company went bankrupt. He's drowning in debt, and his family has finally cut him off completely, stripping him of all his legitimate business fronts. He's an outcast, a failed Don. | feel a calm sense of justice. It's the fate he earned. A few more years go by. An email from Maya arrives with a link to a tabloid article. "Ethan Reed, Disgraced Socialite, Dies in Fiery Car Crash." The police suspected street racing, but | know what it was. A Vendetta from a rival family, or perhaps ---- an internal cleaning by his own. The article mentions the passenger, Chloe Vance, was critically injured | read the words, my face blank. A distant, phantom sadness brushes against me, for the boy he pretended to be. But mostly, | feel a profound and final sense of release. The Don's shadow is gone from the world. His death is the final period on a chapter of my life | thought I'd already closed. | close the laptop and go outside to my garden, to the life | built for myself. | am my own designer, my own Queen. Maya calls a few days later, her voice soft with concern. "Are you okay?" "lam," | say, and I'm surprised by how true it is. "It feels like finishing a very long, very bad book." | admit to her that his manipulation and betrayal of our family bond nearly broke me. But he didn't win. Later that week, I'm at the bookstore with Ben. He notices my quiet mood. He doesn't push, just rests his hand on mine. His touch is steady and grounding. It is a loyalty that exists outside the twisted code of Omerta. | realize in that moment that the calm, simple affection Ben offers is worth more than all the destructive, all-consuming passion Ethan ever pretended to feel. This is real. This is safe.