The Locket of Lost Years Eleanora Vance had spent eighty-two years living in a world where everything had a price. Buildings rose bearing her name. Museums fought over her donations. Industries bent to the will of her signature. But on one Tuesday night at Arya, San Francisco’s most exclusive restaurant, all her power shattered over something worth less than a meal—a tarnished silver locket swinging from the neck of a young waitress. The evening had begun like so many others: quiet, orderly, lifeless. Eleanora sat across from her son, Julian,

Six Months After the Divorce Nathan Reed stood in front of the giant windows of his 63rd-floor office, staring out at New York City like it was a kingdom he’d built with his own hands. Everyone who knew his name thought he was the perfect success story. A billionaire CEO. A man who climbed from nothing until he was standing above the clouds. Reed Tower was literally his monument, each brick placed with his relentless ambition. But while the sun slid across the glass and glittered on the skyline, Nathan

“You Do Now” — A Winter Story of Second Chances Snowflakes drifted through the night like ashes from a dying fire — soft, endless, and uncaring about who they landed on. Downtown Chicago looked almost haunted, its streets half-buried in white, neon signs flickering weakly in puddles of melting snow. Under a trembling streetlamp, a woman held a small boy tightly against her chest. Her coat was too thin for the freezing air, her shoes soaked through, her face pale with exhaustion. But she kept moving. Because she had to.