Chapter 10 - UnbrokenClara walked into the back office.
She opened the envelope Daniel had left behind.
Then she placed the documents into the shredder.
The machine hummed.
Piece by piece, the past disappeared.
Clara returned to the café.
Sunlight spilled across the bookshelves.
A customer walked through the door.
"Welcome to Clara's Books & Brew."
She smiled.
For the first time, she wasn't waiting for someone else to decide her worth.
She knew it.
She had survived humiliation.
She had survived poverty.
She had survived being falsely accused.
And now she was building something beautiful.
But that evening, after closing, Clara found something unusual beneath the bookstore's front door.
A plain envelope.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed the Sterling estate.
On the back, someone had written:
May you like
"Vanessa wasn't working alone."
Clara's smile disappeared.
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