Chapter 10
Two years after the night of the broken glass, Andy invited me to dinner.
He was nervous again.
Lila was there, smiling with tears in her eyes.
Then Andy got down on one knee.
He asked her to marry him.
She said yes.
I cried before either of them did.
At their small wedding months later, Andy stood in the sunlight looking happier than I had seen him in years.
Jenna sat beside me.
She squeezed my hand.
“We made it,” she whispered.
“Yes,” I said. “We did.”
As Andy and Lila danced, I touched the faint scar near my temple.
It was almost invisible now.
But I remembered.
I remembered the blood.
The fear.
The moment my son stood frozen.
And I remembered what came after.
Truth.
Courage.
Justice.
Family rebuilt on something stronger than silence.
When Andy came over and hugged me, I held him tightly.
“I love you, Mom,” he said.
“I love you too.”
For the first time since Thomas died, my home did not feel empty.
It felt safe.
It felt warm.
May you like
It felt full of people who had learned the hardest lesson of all:
Real love never asks you to survive it.
