“And now?” she asked.
“Now I think… we ended up where we were supposed to.”
Mia was quiet for a moment.
Then she smiled.
“I like that answer.”
“We ended up where we were supposed to.”
Later, Lacy brought out dessert, something they’d picked up on the way.
“You didn’t think we’d show up empty-handed, did you?” she said.
I smiled.
“Wouldn’t put it past you,” I joked.
We cut into it together, passing plates around, talking over each other again.
The way we used to.
The way we always did when things felt right.
“Wouldn’t put it past you.”
At some point, someone asked,
“So, what do we do now?”
I looked at all nine of them.
Women now.
Strong. Independent. Different in their own ways.
And still… mine.
“We keep going,” I said.
That was it.
No big speech.
No dramatic moment.
Just the truth.
“So, what do we do now?”
***
Later that night, after most of them had settled in or started heading out, I found myself back at the kitchen table.
Charlotte’s letter was still sitting where I left it.
I picked it up again.
Ran my fingers over her handwriting.
For years, I thought our story had ended without closure.
But this made me realize that we had just taken different paths.
One of them led right back here.
I smiled to myself.
“You always did things your own way,” I said quietly.
I picked it up again.
“Talking to Mom again?” a voice said behind me.
I turned.
Mia stood there, leaning against the doorway.
“Something like that,” I said.
She walked over and sat across from me.
“You know,” she said, “she used to talk about you.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Talking to Mom again?”
“Yep. She’d say you were the only person who ever made her feel completely understood.”
“Sounds like her,” I said.
“She was right, you know,” Mia added.
“About what?”
She smiled.
“About you.”
I didn’t respond because I didn’t need to.
Because for the first time in a long time…
I believed it.
“She was right, you know.”
***
When the house finally settled and the night grew quiet, I stood in the living room for a moment.
Just taking it in.
The laughter from earlier still seemed to linger in the walls.
The feeling of it.
The fullness.
I wasn’t standing in a house I had built out of obligation.
I was standing in a life that had grown out of choice and love.
I stood in the living room for a moment.
***
The following morning, I woke up and spent some time thinking. Then I picked up my phone and sent a message to the group chat we’ve had for years.
“Breakfast next Sunday. All of you. No excuses.”
The replies came in almost instantly.
Laughing. Complaining. Agreeing.
The usual.
I smiled.
And for the first time in a long time…
I felt like nothing was missing anymore.
