Chapter 9
Three months passed.
Sarah got stronger every day.
They moved to a better neighborhood.
A real house.
With a yard.
Ethan started at a new school.
A good one.
Victoria had pulled strings.
No one knew who he was.
No one called him trash.
He was just… Ethan.
Richard had taken the settlement.
Bought a small house ten minutes from Sarah’s.
Not a mansion.
Three bedrooms.
One and a half baths.
A fixer-upper.
He spent every weekend working on it.
Hammering.
Painting.
Building things with his hands for the first time since he was twenty-two.
He looked different.
No more tailored suits.
Jeans and flannel.
Calluses on his hands.
Happier.
Broken, but happier.
Every Saturday—
was Lily Day.
She’d stay with Richard.
And every Saturday—
Ethan and Sarah would come over for dinner.
At first it was awkward.
Silences that lasted too long.
Conversations that died before they started.
But slowly—
it got easier.
They’d cook together.
Richard and Ethan would grill.
Sarah and Lily would make salad.
They’d eat at the rickety dining room table Richard had built himself.
Lily would talk about school.
Sarah would talk about her new job at the bookstore.
Ethan would talk about college applications.
Richard would just listen.
And smile.
Like this was the life he’d been waiting for his whole life.
The divorce was final in November.
Victoria got everything.
But she was fair.
More than fair.
She even came to dinner once.
Sat at the head of the table.
Ate Sarah’s lasagna.
Laughed at Lily’s jokes.
Told Ethan she expected him to apply to Harvard.
Said she’d write him a recommendation.
She wasn’t the enemy anymore.
She was just… Victoria.
The woman who’d saved them all.
Thanksgiving came.
They all ate at Richard’s small house.
Richard.
Sarah.
Ethan.
Lily.
Victoria.
And Victoria’s new boyfriend—
a pediatrician who was nice and normal and nothing like Richard.
It was weird.
Complicated.
Messy.
But it worked.
After dinner—
Lily made everyone go around the table and say what they were thankful for.
Victoria went first.
“I’m thankful for second chances,” she said.
“Even when we don’t think we deserve them.”
Sarah went next.
“I’m thankful for my son. And for being alive. And for people who are kinder than they have to be.”
The boyfriend said he was thankful for good food and good company.
Richard went next.
He looked at Ethan.
Then Sarah.
Then Lily.
Then Victoria.
“I’m thankful for the people who forgave me when I didn’t deserve it,” he said.
His voice shook.
“I made every mistake a man can make. I hurt everyone I ever loved. And somehow—you all still let me be here. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of that.”
No one said anything for a minute.
Then Lily—
ever the problem solver—
clapped her hands.
“Okay! My turn! I’m thankful for my big brother! And my mommy and daddy! And Aunt Sarah! And Dr. Mike! And that we’re all together! Because this is the best family ever!”
She raised her glass of apple juice.
“Cheers!”
Everyone raised their glasses.
Clinked.
May you like
And for the first time in a long time—
everyone meant it.
