— You did good, Lera, — Alisa smiled. — You didn’t just punish him, you saved yourself.
— Maybe. He took eight years of my life. And I only took his money and illusions. Seems like a more than fair exchange to me.
We sat in silence. The rain outside grew heavier.
— So what now? — my friend asked.
— Now? — I shrugged. — I live. I took a vacation, in a week I’m flying to Italy. Alone. I’ll walk around Rome, eat pasta, drink wine. I’ll learn to listen to myself again. My own desires.
— Sounds like a great plan, — Alisa nodded. — And what about work? Were there any problems after our… operation?
— None at all, — I smirked. — The technical debt was written off as a system error. No one suspected a thing. You covered our tracks well.
— I’m the head of security, not just anyone, — she snorted.
But her eyes danced with satisfied sparks. I finished my coffee. The bitterness of the drink no longer reminded me of the bitterness of betrayal. It was just the taste of coffee. The rain outside seemed cleansing, not dreary.
I looked at my reflection in the dark windowpane. A woman looked back at me. A little tired, but with a straight back and a clear, calm gaze. A woman who had been through hell and came out not broken, but harder than steel.
— You know, Alisa, — I said, getting up from the table, — for the first time in many years, I truly feel like I can breathe.
And that was the honest truth. A new dawn was ahead. And it was all mine.
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