How quickly things can change.
How much healing is possible when you're surrounded by people who love you.
I think about the road that brought me here.
The pain. The fear.
The night I showed up on this doorstep with nothing but the clothes on my back and a desperate hope that someone would help me.
I think about Cain.
Not with fear—not anymore—but with a kind of distant sadness.
He could have been different. Could have been better.
But he chose cruelty, and in the end, that choice destroyed him.
I don't regret what happened to him.
I probably should—probably should feel guilty about the relief I felt when Levi told me he was gone.
But I don't. Some monsters need to be slain. Some darkness needs to be cut out before it can spread.
And some women need to be saved.
I was one of them, now I want to help save others.
Levi stirs beside me, his eyes fluttering open.
For a moment, he just looks at me—a soft, unguarded expression that makes my heart ache with love.
"Morning," he mumbles.
"Morning."
"How long have you been awake?"
"A while. I was thinking."
"About what?"
I smile, leaning down to kiss him. "About how lucky I am. About how far I've come. About all the things I want to do with this second chance."
He pulls me closer, tucking me against his chest. "Tell me about them."
So I do.
I tell him about the teaching job I'm going to land.
About the safe house I want to create.
About the women I'm going to help and the lives I'm going to change.
I tell him about the wedding I want—small and simple, just our people—and the life I'm going to build with him.
He listens to every word, asking questions, offering suggestions, making me feel like my dreams aren't just possible but inevitable.
This is what love looks like, I realize.
