167. Now That She Knows

Nova

Morning comes quietly.

No panic.

No sharp intake of breath.

No instinctive reach for the past before I’m fully awake.

Just light, soft and pale, slipping through the hotel curtains and resting on my face like permission. It's as if I am back to eight years before everything happened. It's long since I have felt this kind of easy peace.

I open my eyes and for a moment I don’t move. I take inventory of everything that has happened so far.

My chest still aches, but ...