Chapter 15: Enjoy the Airport
Six months later, Claire stood at Boston Logan Airport.
She was not there to chase anyone. She was there to leave.
Her suitcase was small — just enough for two weeks in Italy. She had no itinerary, no hotel reservations, and no one waiting for her on the other side. For the first time in her life, she was traveling without a plan.
She stood near the large windows overlooking the tarmac and watched the planes take off and land. It was strange being back here. The last time she had thought about this airport, Victor had been standing in it with Olivia, smiling as he sent her that final, cruel message.
Claire reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone. She still had that photo saved, though she hadn’t looked at it in months. She stared at it now — Victor and Olivia, young and arrogant, standing in the same terminal she was in now.
She deleted the photo.
Then she walked to the check-in counter and handed over her passport.
As she waited in the security line, Claire thought about the woman she had been the night Victor left. That woman had been hurt, angry, and afraid. She had also been prepared.
The woman standing in line now was different.
She was not fearless. She still carried scars from everything that had happened. But she no longer waited for permission to take up space in her own life.
When her boarding group was called, Claire picked up her bag and walked toward the gate.
She didn’t look back.
As the plane lifted off the runway, Claire closed her eyes and allowed herself one final thought about the man who had once called her useless.
She hoped he was somewhere thinking about her.
She hoped he remembered the message she had sent him at 2:45 a.m. on the night he left.
Enjoy the airport.
Because in the end, that was exactly what she had done.
She had let him go.
And then she had taken everything he tried to steal from her — including her own future.
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Now it was hers.
And hers alone.
