Lucas.
Evelyn.
Claire.
Anna added an A beside them.
Thomas objected because the original carving was historical.
Anna carved it anyway.
Daniel pretended not to notice.
The cabin became our family home.
Not permanently. We each had separate lives. Anna returned to her work as a music teacher but moved closer to Bellmere. Lucas required months of physical therapy. Evelyn continued to experience gaps in memory, though familiar places helped her recover pieces of the past.
One morning, she walked into the kitchen and made the exact cinnamon pancakes she had prepared when I was three.
She did not remember the recipe.
Her hands did.
We ate beside the lake while Lucas quietly cried into his coffee.
The conservation trust protected more than twelve thousand acres surrounding Bellmere. The false mineral reports became part of a public exhibition explaining how Andrew Bennett had used greed against those seeking to exploit the land.
