Chapter 8 - THE SUMMER OF HEALING
The first summer in our new home was a season of profound healing. For the first time in years, the constant, grinding anxiety that had lived in my chest was completely gone. We didn't have to check the mail with a sense of impending doom, waiting for past-due notices or aggressive letters from Ethan's lawyers.
We traveled. I took Noah to Japan, a trip he had been begging for since he first learned how to build his own computer components. We wandered through the neon-lit streets of Akihabara, and I watched my son's eyes light up with pure, unadulterated joy. He wasn't plotting revenge anymore; he was just a kid, marveling at the world.
While Noah explored his tech wonderland, I found my own sense of peace. I started painting again—a hobby I had abandoned when I married Ethan, who had always called it a "waste of space." I set up an easel on our back porch in Austin and painted the vibrant Texas sunsets, letting the colors bleed onto the canvas, a physical manifestation of the heavy darkness leaving my soul.
One afternoon, while I was painting, my phone rang. It was an unknown number.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Sarah Caldwell?" a deep, professional voice asked.
"Speaking."
"This is Agent Reynolds. FBI cyber division. We met in Dallas."
I felt a brief spike of panic. "Is something wrong? Did Ethan—"
"No, no," Reynolds interrupted quickly, her tone warm. "Ethan is safely locked away in Leavenworth. Nothing to worry about there. I'm actually calling about Noah."
"Noah?"
"Yes. We've been analyzing the proprietary encryption-breaking software he wrote to get into Caldwell's servers. Our tech guys are... frankly, they're stunned. They want to buy the patent rights to his algorithm. We're prepared to offer a high six-figure sum, put directly into his trust."
I stared out at the sprawling green grass of my backyard. My life had become wonderfully, incredibly absurd.
May you like
"I'll have to ask him, Agent Reynolds. He's his own boss when it comes to his code. But I'll let him know."
"Please do," she chuckled. "And tell him if he ever wants an internship, the Bureau is willing to bend the age requirements."
