The drive back from Lily's college was quieter than the drive there.
Maya watched the landscape change—the small city giving way to plains, the plains to hills, the hills to the mountains that surrounded Nowhere. The sun was setting, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink and purple, the colors bleeding into each other like watercolors on canvas. She could feel the warmth of the fading light on her face, the gentle hum of the engine beneath her, the steady rhythm of the road stretching out before her. She felt a sense of peace settle over her, the kind that came from knowing she'd done the right thing. She'd been there for Lily. She'd listened. She'd loved. And she'd let her daughter find her own way. The road stretched out before her, empty and open, and she felt a lightness in he
