The light changed.

I glanced into the rearview mirror at their sleeping faces and smiled.

I hadn’t made Brandon regret losing a wife by ruining him.

I had made a different kind of future possible by refusing to let his choices ruin us.

At home I carried Piper inside first, then came back for Quinn.

They stirred and settled against my shoulders, warm and trusting.

The house was peaceful.

There was laundry to fold, work to finish, and a birthday invitation taped to the fridge.

Ordinary life waited for us.

For once, ordinary was exactly what I wanted.

And when I turned the key in the door, I knew that the best thing I’d done at the port wasn’t telling Brandon to look to his right.

It was deciding that when nobody stood beside me, I could still walk forward.