Chapter 10 - The First Sunrise
The state-provided safe house sat on a quiet bluff overlooking Galveston Bay, far away from the Texas heat and the cramped rental house where my life had nearly ended.
I stood on the wide wooden porch at dawn, wrapped in a soft, woolen blanket, watching the first pale streaks of amber and gold spill across the surface of the dark water. The morning air was cool, clean, and entirely free of the smell of metal tools or rotting dust.
My phone rested on the small table beside me, completely silent, free of threatening text messages, frantic jail calls, or demands for labor.
I reached down, resting my palm flat against my own stomach, feeling the slow, steady rhythm of my own heartbeat. I had lost my little boy to a world that tried to treat me like a piece of property, but I had reclaimed my life, my voice, and my future.
May you like
The porch boards beneath my bare feet were solid and still.
I took a long, deep breath of the salty ocean breeze, closed my eyes, and watched the sun climb fully over the horizon, knowing that for the first time in five years, the morning belonged entirely to me.
