Chapter 10 - The Unbreakable Horizon
The sun sank behind the western ridge of Lake Geneva by six o'clock, turning the autumn sky into a magnificent canvas of violet, pink, and deep, fiery orange that matched the colors of the turning trees. The wind had died down, leaving the surface of the lake as smooth and clear as a sheet of dark green glass.
The lodge was warm, the great stone fireplace crackling with the sweet-smelling wood of the old orchard logs.
Vincent sat on the wide leather sofa, his long legs stretched out toward the hearth, a glass of dark cider in his hand. Noah and Lily were asleep on the rug at his feet, their heads nestled against Barnaby’s thick fur, their small faces peaceful and brown under the glow of the embers.
Grace walked over from the kitchen, holding a large, white sketchbook under her arm. She sat down beside him, her head resting against his shoulder, her fingers sliding effortlessly into his large palm.
"What did Lily draw before she fell asleep, Grace?" Vincent asked, leaning his head against hers.
Grace opened the book to the final page.
It wasn't a drawing of a hospital bed, or a green oxygen tank, or a faceless lady in a dark room.
It was a drawing of a massive, beautiful log cabin sitting on top of a gold hill, surrounded by a big blue lake. In the front yard, a man with a gold lighter was holding the hand of a woman in a green sweater, while a little boy and a little girl were riding a giant yellow fox through the grass toward a sun that took up the entire sky.
And at the very bottom, in her clean, proud, blocky letters that she had learned to write without a single tremble in her fingers, she had written three words that would govern the rest of their lives:
May you like
OUR HAPPY HOME.
Vincent smiled, his hand tightening around hers as the fire crackled against the river stones of the hearth, clearing the lane for the future of the empire they had saved from the shadows—an empire that wasn't built on fear, or gold, or the silence of the South Side, but on the simple,unbreakable sound of two children laughing in the light of their own unbreakable dawn.
