After she left, Etha hugged her tightly. “Mom, we’re better, aren’t we?”
Sophie kissed her forehead. “So much better, baby. We had this life together, and no one can take it away from us.”
In that moment, Sophie knew she hadn’t just proven Daniel and his family wrong, but that she herself was right. She was stronger than she’d ever imagined, and she’d given Etha the greatest gift: a life without control, filled with love and dignity.
Daiel’s words—”How can you live without me?”—echoed faintly in her memory. Sophie smiled. The answer was clear: easy and better than that.
