Something shifted in Claire. She exhaled. “I should go talk to her,” she whispered, heading upstairs.
Jonathan turned to Hannah. “You changed this house,” he said. “You changed me.”
From above came the sound of real conversation—soft, awkward, honest.
“Hannah,” Jonathan said, “have dinner with us tonight. As family.”
She hesitated. “If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
And for the first time in years, the Reed mansion felt warm—not perfect, but real.
Two months later, it no longer felt like a house of stone and silence.
It finally felt like home.
