Chapter 16
Lucy started riding ponies at six.
Alina almost refused.
Not because of Ramona.
Because the club still carried Thomas’s ghost.
Then Lucy asked.
So we let the child choose.
Her first lesson was terrible.
She spent twenty minutes naming the pony and five learning anything useful.
Perfect.
Alina watched from the rail.
At one point she cried.
Quietly.
I stood beside her.
“My dad should’ve seen this.”
“Yes.”
No fake comfort.
Some absences remain.
Lucy waved.
“Mommy!”
Alina waved back.
Not cheap blood.
Not restored blood.
May you like
Just mother and daughter.
I had learned to hate the language entirely.
