Chapter 19 - THE SAME RED LIGHT
One year after I found Gaby begging, we drove down Grand Avenue again.
Gaby was behind the wheel.
Leo was laughing in the back seat.
Then the light turned red.
The same intersection.
Gaby became quiet.
I watched her look toward the place where she had stood with the plastic cup.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You want another route?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
The light stayed red.
For a few seconds, the past sat beside us.
Then it changed.
Green.
Gaby drove forward.
That evening, we ate dinner on her apartment balcony.
She looked peaceful.
Not perfectly healed.
Healing doesn't work that way.
But free.
“I used to think you saved me,” she said.
I smiled.
“And now?”
“You found me.”
She looked toward Leo.
“Then you gave me enough time to save myself.”
I couldn't argue with that.
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For the first time, I believed the nightmare was finished.
I should have known better.
