Chapter 10 - Summer on the Cape
One year later.
The morning sun was just beginning to lift over the eastern dunes, casting long, golden shadows across the sand as I walked down to the beach with a steaming mug of coffee in my hand.
The air was fresh, cool, and clean, tasting of salt and wild roses. The only sound was the cry of the gulls and the gentle, rhythmic lap of the tide against the shore.
I sat on a piece of driftwood, watching the water turn from a dark, slate grey to a brilliant, sparkling blue.
My life was quiet now. The legal battles were a distant memory, preserved only in the neat, closed folders in my desk drawer. My parents and sister had stopped trying to contact me; they had finally accepted that the door was locked, the cameras were online, and the boundaries were permanent.
I had spent my entire life trying to buy their approval with my silence, trying to keep a peace that was never mine to protect. But in the end, the only peace that mattered was the one I had built myself, brick by brick, plank by plank, on this sandy spit of land.
May you like
I took a slow sip of my coffee. The wood beneath me was warm, seasoned by the sun.
Behind me, nestled among the pitch pines and the dune grass, my small blue cottage stood proud and beautiful, its shutters open to the sea, its foundation deep, strong, and completely mine.
