Chapter 78
Chapter 78: The Endless Sky
Summer 2054. I sat in my favorite armchair on the front porch of my Virginia home, a light blanket over my lap. The evening sun was a brilliant, deep amber, casting long, golden shadows across the lawn.
I was seventy-eight now, my body tired, but my mind remained as sharp and clear as the glass walls of the Hudson Pavilion.
Anna sat on the top step of the porch, her head leaning against my knee, just as she had done for nearly fifty years. The road outside was quiet, the trees full and green, the security screen wide open to let in the sweet summer breeze.
I looked down at her silver hair, remembering the little girl who used to draw sketches on the kitchen table while I worked my corporate spreadsheets. I remembered the Friday dinner party, the screaming SUVs, the prison mugshots, the London rain, and the Midtown boardrooms. All of it had passed like a winter storm, clearing the path for the endless summer we were now living.
My parents had thought they could define our worth by the rules of their own arrogance. They had thought a mother's love was something they could manipulate, break, or buy off. But they had miscalculated the fundamental physics of the universe: a mother's fierce, protective instinct for her child doesn't compromise with wolves. It eliminates them.
"Are you warm enough, Mom?" Anna asked softly, turning her head to look up at me, her face beautiful and serene in the fading light.
May you like
"I am perfectly warm, sweetie," I smiled, stroking her silver hair.
I closed my eyes, listening to the gentle rustle of the leaves and the distant, peaceful song of a evening bird. The ledger was perfectly balanced. The debts were fully paid. The wolves were gone, the past was dust, and the sky ahead of us was wide, clear, and completely, beautifully endless.
