On the seventh morning, Gordon’s construction crews entered the old property.

I watched through a remote security feed Valerie had arranged for legal oversight. I didn’t want spectacle.

I wanted confirmation that possession had transferred without trouble.

The excavator came through the front gate at sunrise.

For a brief moment, watching the machine roll across the gravel drive tightened my throat. Not because of the house. Because of the man I’d been when I built it.

A younger father with rough hands from work, convinced he could build a kingdom, and that a kingdom would protect love.