Her Father Called Him a Killer. Seven Years Later, She Discovered He Went to Prison for Her.
CHAPTER 10
Six months passed.
Noah moved into Sophia’s home.
For the first time, he attended school under his real name.
Marcus Hale’s son.
Sophia’s child.
The legal heir to the Vale trust.
He was learning how to live without fear.
Eleanor took control of the family company.
She dismantled the Crown Group.
Closed the shell companies.
Paid the victims.
And opened the financial records to the public.
Her father remained in prison.
Jonathan faced federal charges.
The Vale name became a symbol of scandal.
But Eleanor stayed.
She refused to let the empire collapse.
Not because she wanted the money.
Because she wanted to change what it meant.
Adrian returned to the boxing gym.
He began training young fighters.
Not for money.
For discipline.
For the boys who reminded him of himself.
One evening, Eleanor found him sitting alone in the ring.
“You disappeared.”
“I needed five minutes.”
“You’ve had seven years.”
He smiled.
“That’s the problem.”
She climbed through the ropes.
“Do you regret it?”
“What?”
“Prison.”
He thought about it.
“I regret losing you.”
She sat beside him.
“You didn’t lose me.”
“I thought I did.”
“You were protecting me.”
“That’s what I told myself.”
She looked at him.
“Was it true?”
Adrian didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said:
“I don’t know.”
She leaned against his shoulder.
“Maybe we both lost seven years.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
She looked up.
“Seven years were stolen from us.”
He took her hand.
“But they don’t get the rest.”
Eleanor smiled.
For the first time, the future didn’t frighten her.
She had spent years believing love was something fragile.
Something that could be taken away.
Now she understood.
Love wasn’t what had survived the seven years.
It was what they had built after them.
Adrian reached into his pocket.
He pulled out the old photograph.
The one from the boxing gym.
Eleanor stared at it.
“You kept that all this time?”
“Every day.”
She turned it over.
There was a new sentence written on the back.
I still owe you a better dream.
She looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian smiled.
“Wait.”
“For what?”
“You’ll see.”
He stood.
Then held out his hand.
Eleanor took it.
Neither knew where the next road would lead.
But for the first time…
they weren’t afraid to find out.
