“I knew something didn’t feel right.”
“You trusted that feeling.”
“So did you.”
I smiled.
He was right.
Maybe that was the lesson I needed most.
“Still,” I said, “you helped me more than you realize.”
Caleb smiled.
“We’re a team.”
A school bus horn sounded at the end of the driveway.
He hurried down the steps.
“Love you, Mom!”
“Love you too.”
He ran toward the bus and turned once to wave.
I lifted my hand.
Then I looked back at the house.
For months, I had thought surviving that night was the ending.
It wasn’t.
The real ending was standing there without fear.
No secrets.
No pretending.
No one else deciding what my future would look like.
I took another sip of coffee and watched the morning sun rise over the trees.
For the first time in a long time, the house didn’t feel like something I had inherited.
