Chapter 12 - Elena Walks Outside
At 11:42 on a rainy Thursday morning, Elena Cole walked through the prison gates.
No chains.
No guards holding her arms.
No countdown.
Chloe waited beneath an umbrella.
Elena stopped.
Five years earlier, Chloe had been a toddler.
Now she ran.
Elena dropped to her knees.
They collided in the rain.
Neither cared about the cameras.
Neither cared about reporters shouting questions.
Elena buried her face in her daughter’s blonde hair.
“I told you I believed you,” Chloe whispered.
Elena laughed through tears.
“You saved me.”
Chloe pulled back.
“No.”
She touched Elena’s cheek.
“I just told the truth.”
For Elena, that distinction would become the foundation of everything that followed.
But freedom carried complications.
She had no home.
No job.
No money.
Her reputation had been destroyed.
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And her relationship with Rebecca was shattered.
Worst of all, Marcus Bell was still free.
