“I’m just sad it happened to you,” he said. “But I’m not scared off.”
He took her hand.
“You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met,” he said.
Tears pricked her eyes.
“Really?”
“Really,” he said.
She kissed him, and it felt safe.
After college, law school was brutal. Long nights. Endless reading. Constant pressure. Elo focused on family law and child advocacy. In her second year, she joined the child advocacy clinic, working real cases under supervision.
Her first client was a six-year-old boy in foster care.
“I want to live with my aunt,” he told her. “Not strangers.”
“Then we’ll fight for that,” she said.
She spent weeks gathering evidence, interviewing family members, and building a case. In court, she stood before the judge.
“This child deserves stability,” she said. “His aunt can provide that. Family should be the priority when it’s safe.”
The judge agreed. The boy got to move in with his aunt.
He hugged Elo on the courthouse steps.
“Thank you,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” she said.
That night, she called Sky.
“I won my first case,” she said.
“I knew you would,” Sky replied.
“It felt good,” Elo said. “Helping him.”
“That’s your calling,” Sky said.
During law school, Daniel proposed on the same beach where they’d once floated in the cold ocean as undergrads.
“You’re the strongest, kindest person I know,” he said, dropping to one knee in the sand. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said, laughing and crying at the same time.
They planned a small wedding under the oak tree in the Vale estate garden—the same tree where Elo and Sky had painted their mural and spent long afternoons talking about the future.
On the day of the wedding, Ariston walked Elo down the aisle.
“I’m so proud of you,” he whispered.
“I love you, Dad,” she said.
“I love you, too,” he replied.
Sky stood beside her as maid of honor, in a simple blue dress.
“I can’t believe you’re getting married,” Sky said as she helped button the back of Elo’s gown.
“I can’t either,” Elo said. “Are you nervous?”
“No,” Elo said. “Just happy.”
At the reception, Sky gave a speech that made everyone cry.
“I met Elo when we were seven and eight,” Sky told the crowd. “She was hurting, but she was also the bravest person I’d ever meet. She taught me that surviving isn’t enough. You have to turn pain into purpose. She did that, and she changed thousands of lives.”
She raised her glass.
“To Eloin,” she said. “My best friend, my sister, my hero.”