Read on to discover Chapter Two...

Two years later.

The annual Vance Foundation Summer Gala was held on the pristine green lawns of our Bainbridge Island estate.

The sun hung low over the Pacific horizon, casting a brilliant golden light across hundreds of guests—scientists, doctors, community leaders, and families whose children had received life-saving care through the Claire Vance Institute.

The estate was filled with music, laughter, and the mouth-watering aroma of a summer feast.

Leo and Maya—now vibrant three-year-olds with bright hazel eyes and dark curly hair—were running across the grass in their formal white clothes, chasing butterflies with Nurse Clara, their laughter echoing like silver bells across the water.

Daniel Cho walked over to where I stood on the terrace, handing me a glass of sparkling cider.

"The state prosecutor called thirty minutes ago," Daniel reported softly. "Richard Mercer passed away peacefully in his sleep at the federal medical facility in Oregon. Heart failure."

I set my glass on the stone balustrade, looking out at the glittering water.

Richard Mercer—the man who had carried me on his shoulders as a child, only to reveal that he was holding an asset he intended to exploit—was gone.

"Did he leave anything?" I asked quietly.

"A small box of personal items," Daniel said. "Inside was a single photograph of you when you were four years old, sitting on the porch of the old house, holding a wooden toy train he had carved for you."

I drew a long, slow breath of the fresh salt air.

"Send the box to the university archives," I said. "Let it rest with the history of what greed destroys."

"And Evelyn?" Daniel asked gently.

"Evelyn is where she belongs," I said. "Forgotten by the world she tried to conquer."

Suddenly, two tiny pairs of arms wrapped tightly around my legs!

"MOMMY! LOOK!" Maya squeaked, holding up a bright yellow dandelion she had pulled from the lawn. "I FOUND A STAR!"

"It's a beautiful star, my love," I smiled, dropping to my knees despite the slight stiffness in my hip, pulling both Maya and Leo into a fierce, warm embrace.