Chapter 10 - The Garden of Light
Six months later, the cold November rain was a distant memory.
May had arrived in New York, bringing warm sunshine, blooming cherry blossoms, and blue skies over the gardens of the Moretti estate.
In the center of the manicured lawn sat a long wooden table laid out with fresh fruit, strawberry cakes, and tall pitchers of lemonade.
Eleanor sat in a comfortable armchair near the rose garden, her legs resting on a soft ottoman, her arthritis treated by the city’s top specialists. She was smiling, holding a cup of hot tea, watching the lawn.
Anna was running across the grass, wearing a bright yellow summer dress—exact copy of the one she had worn three years ago, but a size larger. She was chasing a fluffy white golden retriever puppy that Dominic had bought for her sixth birthday.
“Faster, Barnaby!” Anna giggled, her bright, musical laughter echoing across the high brick walls of the estate.
Dominic walked out onto the stone patio, holding two glasses of iced tea. He wore a simple white linen shirt, his dark suit discarded, the lines of grief and violence completely erased from his face.
He walked over to Eleanor, handing her a glass, then sat beside her on the bench.
“She gained three pounds this month,” Eleanor noted with a proud smile. “Dr. Roberts says her lung capacity from the river recovery is completely back to normal.”
“She’s thriving, Eleanor,” Dominic whispered, watching his daughter do a cartwheel on the lawn, the silver star necklace glinting brightly in the spring sunshine. “Because of you.”
Anna spotted her father. She stopped playing with the puppy, picked up the small wooden box she had brought out from her room, and came running across the lawn toward them.
She skidded to a stop in front of Dominic’s knees, holding out a drawing she had made at school that morning.
It showed three people holding hands beneath a giant red sun: a big man with a smile, an old lady with a blue hat, and a little girl with a tiny crescent scar beneath her eye.
Dominic took the paper, his chest swelling with an emotion so deep, so overwhelming, it brought a soft, happy tear to his eye.
“Who are these people, Anna?” Dominic asked gently, pulling her onto his lap.
Anna wrapped her small arms around his neck, leaning her head against his shoulder, her crescent scar resting right over his heart.
“That’s Grandma Eleanor, that’s me, and that’s you, Daddy,” Anna said softly, her voice filled with absolute, unshakeable peace. “The people who saved each other.”
May you like
Dominic wrapped his arms around his daughter, holding her close beneath the warm May sun.
The waterfront warehouses were far away. The cold river was gone. The shadows of the past had finally burned away into the light, leaving behind a father, a daughter, and a home that nothing in this world could ever break again.
