Chapter 11 - SUNLIGHT
Five years later.
The porch swing creaked gently in the warm breeze of a South Carolina evening. The air smelled of sweet tea and blooming jasmine. Elena sat on the porch, watching the fireflies begin to blink to life in the tall grass of her front yard.
Her wrist occasionally ached when it rained, a phantom reminder of a past life that felt like it belonged to someone else. She was a local bakery owner now. She had friends. She had neighbors who knew her only as a kind, hardworking single mother.
The screen door banged open, and a bright-eyed five-year-old girl with scraped knees and a huge smile sprinted onto the porch.
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"Momma! Look at the fireflies!" Hope yelled, pointing a sticky finger toward the lawn.
"I see them, baby," Elena laughed, pulling the little girl into her lap and wrapping both arms securely around her. She looked out at the quiet street, at the peaceful, mundane beauty of a life completely unbothered by fear. There were no monsters hiding in the shadows of this house. There was only sunlight, safety, and a mother who had fought through hell to give her daughter heaven.
