Epilogue: Love With Nowhere to Go But Forward
A few weeks later, I unlocked the bakery door for the first time. Miles carried a framed photo of Luke and placed it beside the register.
“He should have the best seat,” he said, “so he can watch your dream come true.”
I cried then, because Luke had broken my heart, and he had loved me with all of his. Both things were true. The lie had wounded me. The truth had wounded me differently. But the love he left behind did not ask me to forget what happened.
It only asked me to keep going.
So I did. One key in my hand. One child beside me. One photograph near the register. And one life, not the life I had planned, but still mine, waiting to be built.
