Most of it was gone.
As for Vanessa, she discovered something very quickly.
She had never been in love with a powerful man.
She had been attracted to the power.
Once the power disappeared, so did she.
She resigned quietly and vanished from the headlines.
Six months later, I received a letter from Ethan.
Three pages of apologies.
Excuses.
Memories.
Promises that he had changed.
I placed the letter in the fireplace without reading past the first paragraph.
Some people believe revenge is watching someone suffer.
They are wrong.
The greatest revenge is becoming someone they can never reach again.
I looked out over the city from the office that once belonged to my husband.
Now, it belonged to me.
And for the first time in seven years, I smiled.
Not because Ethan had lost everything.
But because I finally remembered that I had never needed him to begin with.