Chapter 19 - The Second SunriseSixteen months after the day the wheelchair hit the floor, the Sterling estate hosted a celebration.
String lights glowed across the garden.
Music drifted over the lawn.
Lena carried trays of pastries between laughing guests.
Ava stood beside Ethan.
She still used forearm crutches for longer distances.
But she was stronger than anyone had expected.
She looked toward the mountains.
The sunset painted the sky gold.
Ethan squeezed her hand.
"You okay?"
Ava smiled.
"For the first time in years."
She looked around.
This house had once contained fear.
Now it contained laughter.
She thought about the woman she had been before the crash.
Then the woman she had become afterward.
Neither was gone.
They had simply become one.
A survivor.
A wife.
May you like
A fighter.
A woman finally free.
