Chapter 5 - The Restoration
The eviction was swift. The legal proof was undeniable. By the end of the week, the house was mine.
I stood in the center of the living room, the space that had once been filled with boxes of diapers and resentment, now blissfully quiet. The furniture they had bought with the embezzled money was gone, removed by the court to be sold as restitution.
I walked into what had been 'my' room. It was empty, save for a few boxes I had brought back from the storage unit I had kept paid up all these years.
I opened one. Inside was the old sewing machine, the photos of my grandfather, and the books I had loved as a girl.
I sat down on the floor, the sunlight streaming through the window. For the first time in two years, I wasn't an ex-con, a burden, or a ghost. I was just Summer.
May you like
My phone buzzed. It was an email from the prosecutor. My brother had been arrested for perjury and fraud. My parents were facing charges of their own.
I closed the phone and picked up a needle and thread. I had a lot of work to do, but for the first time in a long time, the fabric of my life was finally starting to hold together again.
