Chapter 8 - Echoes of the Past
As Sadi stepped out into the cool evening air, waiting for her driver, a figure detached itself from the shadows of the parking garage.
It was a man, hunched over, wearing a dirty overcoat and scuffed shoes. His face was covered in a week’s worth of stubble, his eyes hollow and desperate.
Sadi froze. Her security detail, standing twenty feet away, instantly reached for the inside of their jackets. She held up a hand, stopping them.
Trevor took a step forward, raising his hands in surrender. He looked completely broken. The arrogant lawyer was gone, replaced by a hollow shell of a man who hadn't eaten a proper meal in days.
“Sadi,” he croaked, his voice cracking. “Please. Don't let them shoot me. I just… I just needed to see you.”
Sadi stared at him, feeling absolutely nothing. No anger, no pity, no vindication. Just a profound emptiness. “You shouldn't be here, Trevor. If Roman finds out you got this close to me, he won't just ruin you financially.”
“I have nothing!” Trevor sobbed, dropping to his knees on the concrete. “I sleep in an alley! I eat out of dumpsters! I’m sorry, okay? I’m so sorry for what I did to you! Please, just tell him to call it off. Just give me my life back!”
Sadi looked down at him. She remembered the nights she had cried herself to sleep after he left. She remembered the panic of not being able to make rent. She remembered the sharp pain of his shoe connecting with her leg just a few weeks ago.
“You don't want your life back, Trevor,” Sadi said softly. “You want your ego back. You want the suits and the dinners and the blonde women who look at you like you're a god.”
Trevor looked up at her, tears streaming down his dirty face. “I just want to survive.”
“Then survive,” Sadi said coldly. “Like I did. Get a job washing dishes. Sleep in a car. Rebuild yourself from the dirt. Because nobody is going to hand it to you.”
She turned her back on him, signaling to her driver. The black SUV pulled up immediately.
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“Sadi, please!” Trevor wailed, reaching out a hand.
Two massive security guards stepped between them, blocking Trevor's view. Sadi climbed into the warm, leather interior of the SUV. She didn't look back as the car pulled away, leaving Trevor kneeling in the shadows. The ghost of her past was finally laid to rest.
