13
Five years later, I was living in Australia. One day, Oliv-
ja called me.
“Mom, you need to run. A reporter wrote an article about your success story and posted it online. The three of them just bought plane tickets. They’re on
their way.”
I clicked the link she sent. The headline was bold:
【The Phoenix Rises: How One Woman Started a Bus-
iness at 50 and Took It Public in Just Five Years.】
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Before I could finish reading, my secretary knocked.
Ms. Jiang, there’s a gentleman here who insists on seeing you. He doesn’t have an appointment, and
security can’t stop him.‘
I waved a hand. “Let him in.”
Five years ago, I would have been terrified of Howard
finding me. Not anymore.
Success is a woman’s best armor.
After the news of our “deaths,” Howard hadn’t given
- up. He and the boys had hired team after team of
divers to search the ocean. For two whole months,
Chapter 2
08:54
ne refused to call off the search. He said he needed
to see our bodies. Until then, he wouldn’t believe we
were gone.
The news reported that his hair had turned white
overnight, that he had gone mad with grief.
Sienna had knelt before him, begging him to accept
reality. “Godfather, please, you have to move on. Even
though Godmother is gone, you still have me and my
brothers.”
Howard had shoved her away, clutching a photo of
- me. “Don’t you ever call me that again. Eleanor never agreed to be your godmother. She never wanted Adrian and Jack to be your brothers. I can’t upset her anymore. If I do, she’ll never let me find her. Leave this house. And never show your face to me or my
sons again.”
I heard Sienna had refused to leave, kneeling outside the Hawthorne estate for a week. But Howard was a ghost of himself, and his resolve was absolute. He never let her set foot in the house again.
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