“He Thought He Owned My Life — Until I Let Him Lose Everything in One Afternoon”

“I was angry!” he pleaded, his hands reaching out, hovering in the cold space between us. “People say things when they’re angry!”

“No,” I replied, pulling my leather gloves snug over my fingers. “People reveal themselves when they think they have all the power. You thought you had all the power. You thought you owned me.”

“Elena—”

“I suggest you call your mother,” I said. “Or perhaps Cassidy can use her discretionary venture buffer to get you a hotel room.”

I turned on my heel and began walking north along the avenue.

“Elena!” he screamed behind me, his voice cracking against the stone facades of the high-rises. “Elena, you ruined my life!”

I didn’t turn around. I didn’t quicken my pace. I simply kept walking into the crisp, clear Chicago air, feeling the pavement solid beneath my feet and the vast, beautiful, silent world opening up before me.

He thought he was the architect of an empire.

He never realized he was just a squatter in a house built entirely by my hands—and now, the locks were changed forever.Would you like to explore a continuation focusing on Elena establishing her new life in the Gold Coast brownstone while dealing with the legal or social fallout from Derek?