“You were born in chaos,” I told him softly. “But look where you landed.”
Katie joined me, leaning against the fence.
“It feels different,” she said. “Lighter.”
“It is,” I answered. “Because there’s nothing left to hide.”
That night, I sat at my kitchen table with a cup of tea and the deep quiet of a house that told no lies. The barn light glowed outside, steady and reassuring. Tomorrow I would wake before dawn, same as always, walk the same path, do the same work.
Five dollars. That was what they thought my life was worth.
But some things are not priced. Some things are built, defended, and kept.
And sometimes silence is not defeat.
