Chapter 15 - The Queen of the Skyline
The call lasted less than a minute.
Richard had screamed into the phone.
He had cursed Marcus.
He had cursed Khloe.
And then, abruptly, the line had gone dead.
Khloe later learned that the prison guards had raided Richard’s cell mid-sentence.
Harrison had tipped off the warden about the contraband phone.
Richard Harrington was dragged out of his cell in handcuffs.
He was thrown into solitary confinement.
The FBI added another fifteen years to his sentence for continuing a criminal enterprise from inside a federal facility.
He would never see the outside of a prison again.
He would die behind bars.
Marcus Thorne was arrested in the parking lot of the steakhouse three minutes after Khloe walked out.
The ghost was dead.
The threat was neutralized.
Six months later.
The sun shone brightly over downtown Philadelphia.
Thousands of people gathered in the city square.
News helicopters hovered overhead.
Khloe Cole stood at a podium adorned with a massive floral arrangement.
Behind her stood the completed Lily Tower.
It was a masterpiece of glass and steel, soaring into the clouds.
It was beautiful.
It was unbreakable.
Just like its creator.
Harrison stood off to the side of the stage, holding a three-year-old Lily in his arms.
Lily clapped her hands, laughing at the bright flashes of the cameras.
Khloe stepped up to the microphone.
The crowd fell silent.
“They said this building was impossible,” Khloe began, her voice echoing across the plaza.
“They said the foundation couldn't hold.”
“They said the storms would break it.”
She looked directly at the cameras, knowing perfectly well that every television in the state was broadcasting her face.
Even the ones in federal lockup.
“But they underestimated the foundation.”
“They underestimated what happens when you build something out of love instead of greed.”
Khloe picked up a pair of oversized golden scissors.
She walked over to the thick red ribbon stretched across the glass doors of the tower.
She looked back at Harrison.
He gave her a single, proud nod.
Khloe cut the ribbon.
The crowd erupted into deafening cheers.
Confetti rained down from the sky, glittering in the sunlight.
Khloe looked up at the towering monument she had built.
She had taken the worst tragedy of her life and forged an empire.
She had protected her family.
May you like
She had claimed the skyline.
And no one would ever dare to stand in her way again.
