CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The mountain valley woke slowly under a sky streaked with soft rose and gold. Birds called from the pines as the seven sisters stepped onto the dew-wet porch, each carrying a mug of steaming coffee or tea.
For the first time since the lake house fire, there were no countdowns ticking in the background, no encrypted messages waiting like traps, no ghosts whispering from hidden servers.
Only the ordinary sounds of morning…wind in the trees, the distant rush of a stream, and the quiet rhythm of seven women learning how to simply exist together.
Elena stood at the railing beside Lila, their shoulders touching in the old familiar way. “I keep expecting to hear an alarm,” she admitted with a small laugh. “Or feel that old weight on my chest. But it’s gone. Really gone.”
L
