Chapter 35 — A Year

A year changes a great deal.

It can grind a person to dust, or it can forge a broken woman into something that does not break again.

I stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows of my corner office at Aperture Systems, looking out over the skyline while a thunderstorm threw rain against the glass.

Inside it was warm and quiet and entirely under my control.

After the trial I had poured myself into the work — a promotion, a secure home in a gated community, every ounce of the anger and betrayal channeled into building something of my own.