CHAPTER 5: LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE
As she sat in her room watching TV, Violet had reflected on how she ended up where she was. From running her father's multi-million company as COO of Gray Industries to now a parolee in a halfway house, though still a millionaire due to her inheritance. Her jaded jealousy of the Brown family, Charlie in particular, was what caused her downfall. But she was determined to never go back to that mindset. If she was to get over everything that had happened to her, she needed to get as far away from Sparkyville as possible. But first she had to get back on her feet.
Once she did her stay at the halfway house, she would work with her parole officer about doing her probation out of state. She planned on renting a small apartment so she didn't get settled too much, as she didn't plan on staying there. Mike Stone and she had already gotten her inheritance deposited into her bank account, which had been unfrozen soon as she was released from prison. She never had to work again if she chose not to, but decided to get back into the work force. There was no way she was going to try to go back to Gray Industries at that point. Her criminal record aside, she had burned a lot of bridges at the company founded by her father, not to mention Sally was back interning there, so the restraining order would be in place there, as well. To her credit, she had a good relationship with Mason Wallace, the CEO of Gray Industries who took over after her father's death, and had originally took her place after her firing. He kept her in the loop of what was going on there, and even commended her on turning her life around.
Violet turned off the TV and got ready for bed. She didn't want to think about the past anymore. There was no chance of her and Patty being friends again, let alone best friends, Charlie, Sally, and the entire Brown family were off limits to her as was ordered by the court, she wasn't sure she'd even be invited back into the Bronze Beagle by Shermy, so she decided not to chance it. Of the gang, outside of the chat she and Patty had, only Lucy had visited her in prison and kept in constant contact with her. No one else wanted anything to do with her, as it seemed. She wasn't sure about Schroeder, seeing how he was locked up for virtually the same thing. But unlike Patty and Charlie, Lucy would be willing to talk to Schroeder and work to being friendly with him again, but only if he wanted to. Derrick was even supportive, at that point, provided Schroeder didn't try anything stupid once he was out. The jury was out when it came to Linus, however. As Violet got out of her clothes, clad only in her bra and underwear, she turned out the light, turned on the radio to jazz, and went to bed. She eventually went to sleep after some thinking.
THE END