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Chapter 549. The FINALE
The backyard was full again by seven, but this time nobody had to pretend it was a casual afternoon. Anna had hung paper lanterns from the fence the night before, badly, and half of them sagged in the middle. Nobody fixed them. They looked better crooked.Melissa kept holding her left hand out in front of her when she thought no one was looking, tilting it to catch the light. Harry caught her doing it twice and pretended he hadn't.Rhiannon came through the side gate at seven thirty with a duffel bag over her shoulder and no warning at all. She had told everyone she couldn't make it, that the schedule wouldn't allow it, and she had lied to every single one of them. Anna screamed. Melissa dropped a tray of glasses onto the grass, and nothing broke, which Rhiannon called a sign."Seven hours of flying," she said, hugging Melissa so hard her feet left the ground. "I'm wearing the same shirt as yesterday. I regret nothing."Harry watched them from across the yard and had to look at the gr
Chapter 548. Inevitable
Harry carried the ring around for eleven days before he did anything with it.It sat in the inside pocket of his jacket, a small box he'd picked out alone on a weekday afternoon, standing at a jewelry counter feeling like a kid pretending to be an adult. The woman behind the counter had shown him three rings worth more than his first car and he'd politely pointed at a fourth one, thin and simple, with a small stone that caught the light without trying too hard. It was the one Melissa would have picked herself. He'd known it the second he saw it.He didn't tell anyone. Not Wren, not Anna, not even Dr. Gail, though she'd probably guessed. He just carried it, and every morning he woke up thinking today might be the day, and every night he went to bed having decided it wasn't quite yet. The platform had changed something. Saying all of it out loud, the worst night of his life and every ugly choice that came after, had cleared a space in him he hadn't known was blocked. Once it was clear
Chapter 547. His Mother, His Father, Himself
The cemetery sat on a quiet hillside outside the city, the kind of place Harry visited maybe twice a year now, not out of obligation exactly, more out of a settled habit that had replaced the raw, unbearable grief he used to feel standing in front of this particular stone. His mother's name was carved plainly into it, no elaborate epitaph, nothing that tried to explain away what had happened to her. Just her name, and two dates, and the quiet dignity of being remembered honestly instead of prettied up for anyone else's comfort. He sat on the grass beside the stone for a while, not saying anything out loud, just letting himself exist near her the way he did on these visits. A year of distance had changed something in how he carried this particular grief. It didn't ambush him anymore, didn't flatten him the way it used to in unguarded moments. It had settled into something he could hold steadily, sad and permanent, without it derailing the rest of his day. He thought about her ins
Chapter 546. Everyone He Hurt, Everyone He Helped
Dr. Gail's office looked the same as it always had, the same window overlooking the same unremarkable parking lot, though Harry came less often now, maybe once every couple months instead of the weekly sessions that had gotten him through the worst of the aftermath. This particular visit hadn't been scheduled around any crisis. He'd just called and asked if she had time, feeling some quiet need to sit somewhere honest and take stock of things properly before whatever came next in his life actually arrived."You seem different today," Dr. Gail said, settling into her chair. "Not upset. Just thoughtful in a specific way.""I've been thinking about everyone," Harry said. "Not in a spiraling way. Just accounting, I guess. Everyone this story touched.""Tell me," she said, the same two words she always used to open the door wide enough for him to walk through it himself.He started with his mother, because it felt right to start there, at the root of everything else. Her instability, the
Chapter 545. The Platform
The train station looked smaller than Harry remembered it, which surprised him more than it probably should have. He'd built it up in his mind over the years into something vast and looming, a place heavy enough to hold the worst night of his life, but standing on the platform now with Melissa's hand in his, it was just an ordinary station, worn benches and flickering overhead signs and the distant rumble of a train somewhere down the line that hadn't arrived yet.Melissa hadn't asked where they were going that morning. She'd simply gotten in the car when he asked her to, quiet and patient beside him the whole drive, some instinct in her clearly understanding this wasn't a place that needed small talk on the way."This is it," Harry said, once they were standing on the platform itself, the words feeling strange in his mouth after keeping the sentence unsaid for so long. "This is where it happened."Melissa looked around slowly, taking in the ordinary details of the place, the peeling
Chapter 544. The Found Family, Fully Formed
The backyard filled up gradually that Saturday afternoon, nobody quite sure who'd actually organized it, just a loose collection of texts that had somehow turned into everyone showing up at once with food and folding chairs and no real agenda beyond wanting to be in the same place together. Rhiannon had landed the night before, a rare gap between tour legs, and had immediately declared she wasn't spending a single free evening anywhere but here."You're all stuck with me for exactly thirty six hours," she announced, dropping a cooler of drinks onto the picnic table with more enthusiasm than the task strictly required. "Make the most of it."Anna, who'd apparently been counting down the days on a calendar in her room, threw herself at Rhiannon before the cooler had even settled properly."You smell like an airport," Anna informed her, not letting go."That's the sound of true love," Rhiannon said, hugging her back just as hard. "Airports and love, same smell, everyone knows that."Ann
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