Chapter 12
Three months later, the court delivered its final judgment:
Ethan Cole was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for intentional injury resulting in death, commercial fraud, and other charges.
Vanessa Blake received twenty years for fraud, operating a prostitution ring, and related crimes.
Prison life was far worse than either of them had imagined.
Ethan was placed in a high-security block, where he endured constant harassment and beatings
from fellow inmates.
The “business genius” he once flaunted meant nothing here-if anything, his status as a
convicted fraud made him the lowest of the low.
Vanessa’s fate was even uglier.
News of her fake heiress persona spread quickly through the women’s prison, making her the butt
of every joke.
Families of wealthy men she had conned took great pleasure in finding new ways to humiliate her.
Her compulsive need for cleanliness became a cruel irony in the filthy, overcrowded environment
she was now forced to live in.
As for the colleagues who had taken part in that “water gun game”? After their month-long “special team-building” exile on the deserted island, every one of them developed a severe fear of
the ocean.
For the rest of their lives, they couldn’t go near the shore some couldn’t even bring themselves
to take a bath.
And me? Under my father’s arrangement, I went abroad to continue my studies.
Three years later, I built a pure white orphanage by the sea and named it Dawn’s Haven,
Every morning, I took the children for a walk along the shore, watching the sun rise over the horizon, spilling gold over the waves.
Most of these children carried tragic pasts, just as I once had.
Chapter 12
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But I taught them to heal with love and to face the future with hope.
The orphanage walls were lined with photographs of their smiling faces, each picture holding a story of rebirth.
The sea breeze drifted through, carrying the sound of their laughter like silver bells.
I stood on the balcony, watching them chase each other along the shore, and finally understood-
some love never fades, it just finds a different way to live on.

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