“So what did you get?”
I looked at the house.
At my mother inside arguing with Daniel over dinner.
At Hayes fixing a broken cabinet because he still
wasn’t very good at talking to me.
At Claire beside me.
At the photograph of Russell hanging near the entrance—not as the founder, but simply as one of the people whose mistakes helped create something better.
I smiled.
“Exactly what I deserved.”
Claire groaned.
“Oh, don’t start sounding like him.”
I laughed.
And for the first time in my life, I realized I wasn’t afraid of losing everything.
Because the most important things I had couldn’t be inherited.
They couldn’t be hidden in a vault.
They couldn’t be stolen with a forged signature.
They couldn’t even be buried.
**Truth.**
**Freedom.**
**A family rebuilt by choice instead of blood.**
And a home whose doors were open to anyone who needed one.
