Chapter 6: The Foundation of Integrity
A year later, the city of Chicago felt different. The air was clearer, or perhaps it was just the clarity of my own mind. I stood on the balcony of a beautiful apartment—my own, purchased with my own earnings—overlooking the lights of the city.
Deborah joined me, a glass of wine in her hand. "You did it," she said. "He’s behind bars, the firm is dissolved, and you’re standing here on your own terms."
"We did it," I corrected her, clinking my glass against hers.
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The final court hearings had concluded. The restitution fund for the victims of Andrew’s fraud was fully stocked, and I had even managed to save the small community center that had been slated for demolition to make way for one of Andrew’s doomed luxury developments.
I thought back to that night behind the supermarket, the smell of damp cardboard, the feeling of absolute despair. That woman had been a seed, buried in the dark, thinking she was being destroyed, when in fact, she was being planted. I had learned that the most powerful thing one can possess is the truth, and the most dangerous thing one can do is underestimate a woman who has nothing left to lose. My life was no longer a story written by someone else; it was a testament to the endurance of the human spirit. I was finally, truly, Natalie Brooks.
