I stood up from the chair, holding Daniel and Uncle David’s hands toward the limitless blue sky as the distant chimes of the valley chapel began to strike twelve times across the peaceful water:
“…nobody ever, ever… steals from an auditor again.”
Barnaby let out a soft, contented sigh on the porch rug, his tail thumping once against the cedar boards: thump.
The eagles climbed into the limitless blue sky.
The creek ran deep and clear.
The ledger was closed forever.
And the woman who had asked one question in her foyer to dismantle an empire… was finally, beautifully, eternally free.
