Chapter 119

Ava’s POV

There were pauses, of course. Small silences where the past threatened to creep back in but each time, someone steered us forward and each time, it got easier.

At one point, I glanced around the table, really looked.

Ezra, relaxed in a way I hadn’t seen in years. Alex, leaning in, listening, a faint smile tugging at his mouth. Emily, laughing, her eyes bright, lighter than I remembered.

And me, sitting here, not as the outcast, not as the wounded one, but as part of something.

I hadn’t expected peace to feel like this.

***

Emily’s POV

The restaurant lights cast a golden glow over the table, soft and forgiving, as if even the room itself wanted to give us this fragile truce.

Hours had passed since that first heavy silence, yet I still found myself glancing across the table at Ava and Ezra as though I had to keep checking, checking that this wasn’t a dream, that they were really here, that we were all still