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TVTranscript
00:00You ever wake up one morning and realize you've been living your life on mute?
00:03Like someone pressed pause on your dreams, but forgot to tell you.
00:07That was me.
00:08Before all of this.
00:09Before him.
00:10Before my little boy started calling a stranger's office home.
00:14That morning, I was running.
00:17Not in the dramatic way you see in movies.
00:19Heels clacking, hair flying, someone chasing you with a gun.
00:24No.
00:25My running was quieter.
00:26I was running from eviction notices, overdue bills,
00:31and a boss who thought a single mom would say yes to anything if he held her paycheck hostage.
00:35I was tired.
00:37The kind of tired that crawls under your skin and becomes part of you.
00:41Eli, my son, was five.
00:44He had the kind of smile that made strangers kinder,
00:46and the kind of questions that made me want to cry.
00:50That morning, he asked,
00:51Mommy, if we lose our house, can we move into your work?
00:54He said it so seriously.
00:55Like he was planning a vacation.
00:58I laughed, but it cracked halfway through.
01:01By the time I dropped him at school,
01:03I'd already decided I'd beg my boss for another week.
01:06Just one.
01:07Just enough to cover the rent.
01:09I told myself pride was useless when your kid's lunchbox was half empty.
01:13My boss worked in a glass office that overlooked the city.
01:16It looked expensive, smelled expensive, and reminded me I didn't belong there.
01:20I was a receptionist.
01:22Disposable.
01:23Replaceable.
01:24But I was good at pretending I wasn't.
01:27When I walked in, he wasn't there.
01:29Instead, someone else was.
01:30A man standing by the window.
01:32Sleeves rolled up.
01:33Black shirt open at the throat like the rules didn't apply to him.
01:36He was looking out over the skyline as if he owned it.
01:39And maybe he did.
01:40He turned when he heard me.
01:44And I swear.
01:46Something in the room shifted.
01:48He had the kind of calm that doesn't come from peace, but from power.
01:53The kind of stillness that made everything else look like noise.
01:57You're not supposed to be here, I said before I could stop myself.
02:02I could say the same to you.
02:05His voice was low.
02:06Unhurried.
02:07He wasn't asking questions.
02:09He was making observations.
02:10I work here.
02:12He smiled a little.
02:13Not anymore.
02:14That's when I saw it.
02:15The new nameplate on the door behind him.
02:17Adrian Moretti.
02:18CEO.
02:19My stomach dropped.
02:20Moretti.
02:21The name you only whispered in this city.
02:23The kind of name that made police look away and people cross streets.
02:27I wanted to leave.
02:28But I didn't.
02:30Because when he looked at me, I felt...
02:33Seen.
02:34And I hadn't felt that in years.
02:36I...
02:36I just needed to talk to Mr. Daniels.
02:39I said.
02:39He promised to hold my paycheck until Friday.
02:42My rent...
02:43Daniels doesn't work here anymore, he said.
02:46He sold the company last night.
02:48My mouth went dry.
02:49So, who do I talk to?
02:51He looked right at me.
02:52Me.
02:53That's how I met him.
02:54The man who would ruin and save me in the same breath.
02:57He asked for my name.
02:59I told him.
03:00He said it like he was tasting it.
03:02Slow.
03:02Careful.
03:04Maya.
03:04Then he asked for the truth.
03:07Not the pretty one.
03:08The real one.
03:10And for reasons I still don't understand.
03:12I gave it to him.
03:14I told him about the bills.
03:16The job.
03:17Eli.
03:19About how hard it was to breathe when everything you did still wasn't enough.
03:23I expected pity.
03:24Or maybe disgust.
03:25But all he said was,
03:27You show up every day.
03:28That's more than most.
03:30When I left his office, I didn't know if I still had a job.
03:33But something about the way he'd looked at me.
03:36Steady.
03:37Unflinching.
03:38Made me feel like maybe I wasn't completely invisible.
03:41That night, I found out he'd doubled my paycheck.
03:45No note.
03:46No explanation.
03:48Just a deposit in my account and a text from an unknown number that said,
03:51Get your kid what he needs.
03:53Don't ask how, I didn't respond.
03:55But I didn't send it back either.
03:57A week later, I walked into work.
04:00And he was waiting again.
04:02Same shirt.
04:03Same calm.
04:04Same impossible stillness.
04:06He said,
04:07You didn't ask why I did it.
04:10I figured you liked playing savior.
04:13He almost smiled.
04:15You think I save people?
04:16I think you save who you want.
04:18He stepped closer.
04:20Slow enough that I could have walked away.
04:22But didn't.
04:24You're not scared of me.
04:26I didn't say that.
04:28You didn't have to.
04:29There was something dangerous in the way he looked at me.
04:34Like he was dissecting me from the inside out.
04:36And for a second, I wanted him to.
04:39I left before I said something stupid.
04:42That night, I tucked Eli in.
04:45And he said,
04:46Mommy, can we visit your work again?
04:49The big office with the shiny windows.
04:50It feels like home.
04:53It hit me like a bruise.
04:55I didn't know how to explain to a five-year-old that home wasn't a place.
04:59It was something we kept losing.
05:01The next morning, I found a small toy car on my desk.
05:05Eli's.
05:06I must have dropped it the day before.
05:07But taped to it was a note in his handwriting.
05:09You forgot this.
05:12And below that, in another hand.
05:14Sharp, black ink.
05:16He can visit any time.
05:18A boy should have a place he calls home.
05:20My heart twisted.
05:22I walked into his office and threw the note on his desk.
05:25You don't get to do that.
05:27Do what?
05:28Blur lines.
05:29Between work and...
05:30I gestured helplessly.
05:32Whatever this is.
05:33His eyes darkened.
05:34You think this is a line I'm drawing?
05:36It's not.
05:37It's a door.
05:38You just don't want to see what's on the other side.
05:41I wanted to hate him for saying it.
05:43I wanted to walk away and never look back.
05:45But he had this way of speaking.
05:47Like every word carried weight.
05:49And if I didn't listen carefully, I'd miss something important.
05:52Then he said something that changed everything.
05:55Your boss before me.
05:57Daniels.
05:57He was laundering money through your paychecks.
06:00Using your name, I froze.
06:02What?
06:03He's gone now.
06:04But the people he owed aren't.
06:05If they find out your name's on the paperwork.
06:08He didn't finish.
06:10He didn't have to.
06:11He slid a folder toward me.
06:13Inside were documents.
06:15Fake transactions.
06:16Fake accounts.
06:18All under Maya Carter.
06:20I couldn't breathe.
06:22He said quietly.
06:24You and your son need protection.
06:26I can offer that.
06:28I looked at him.
06:29Why would you help me?
06:30His jaw flexed.
06:32Because someone once helped me when I didn't deserve it.
06:34And maybe I owe the world one good deed.
06:37I laughed bitterly.
06:38You think this is a good deed?
06:40Dragging me into your world.
06:41He leaned back.
06:43You were already in it.
06:44You just didn't know.
06:46That night I didn't sleep.
06:47I watched Eli dream beside me, clutching his toy car, whispering something about the big
06:52office.
06:53I didn't want this man in our lives.
06:56But the world had already shifted around us, and pretending it hadn't felt like trying
07:00to hold back a tide with bare hands.
07:02When I finally called the number he'd texted from, he picked up on the first ring.
07:08I'll take your help, I whispered.
07:11He didn't gloat.
07:13Didn't sound surprised.
07:14Just said, good, I'll send a car.
07:16What happens now?
07:17His answer was soft, almost a promise.
07:19Now, you and your boy come home.
07:22And that's how it began.
07:24The slow unmaking of my life.
07:26And the man who rebuilt it in his image.
07:29I told myself I was doing it for Eli.
07:31That it was just temporary.
07:34But deep down, I already knew.
07:36I'd crossed a line I could never come back from.
07:38And God help me.
07:39Part of me didn't want to.
07:43I used to think danger made noise.
07:46Sirens.
07:47Shouting.
07:47Gunfire.
07:49But real danger is quiet.
07:50It moves like smoke.
07:52Fills the corners of your life, until you can't tell what's air and what's poison.
07:56That's what living in his world felt like.
07:59Silent danger.
08:00Adrian's offer wasn't an offer.
08:02It was a relocation dressed up as safety.
08:04A car arrived the next morning before sunrise.
08:07Black, tinted, and smelling like power.
08:10Eli thought it was an adventure.
08:12He wore his Spider-Man backpack, and asked if the driver was a superhero, too.
08:17I said yes.
08:18Because lying felt kinder than the truth.
08:20Adrian's house sat on a hill overlooking the city.
08:24All glass and marble.
08:26The kind of place you see in magazines and assume is cold.
08:29It wasn't.
08:30It was too clean.
08:31Too precise.
08:32Too silent.
08:33Like it was waiting for something.
08:35Or someone to mess it up.
08:37That someone was us.
08:40Eli ran across the wide floors.
08:42His sneakers squeaking.
08:44Mommy, it echoes.
08:45It sounds happy here.
08:46I wanted to tell him echoes are just proof that a room is empty.
08:50Adrian appeared at the top of the stairs.
08:52Sleeves rolled up.
08:53Shirt unbuttoned just enough to make my heartbeat feel stupid.
08:57He didn't look surprised to see us.
08:59More like he'd been expecting the moment for a long time.
09:02Room's down the hall, he said.
09:05Yours faces the garden.
09:07The boy's next to you.
09:08That's all?
09:09I asked.
09:10For now.
09:12He didn't smile.
09:13Didn't flirt.
09:14Didn't act like a man who just moved a woman and her child into his fortress.
09:18He was calm.
09:19Too calm.
09:20And I couldn't decide if that made me safer or more trapped.
09:23The first night was the hardest.
09:26I couldn't sleep.
09:27The sheets smelled like cedar in him.
09:29I kept getting up to check on Eli, who was curled up in bed surrounded by more pillows
09:33than he'd ever seen.
09:35He looked peaceful.
09:37Like he finally belonged somewhere.
09:39At 3 a.m., I found myself in the kitchen drinking water straight from the faucet.
09:44He was there, leaning against the counter, watching me like he'd been standing there all
09:48along.
09:49You're not used to quiet, he said.
09:52I'm not used to being watched.
09:54Maybe I'm not watching.
09:56Maybe you're lying.
09:57He tilted his head slightly, that dangerous calm never slipping.
10:01You talk to me like no one else does.
10:04Maybe because I have nothing to lose.
10:07He stepped closer, slow enough for me to back away if I wanted to.
10:12I didn't.
10:13You've got everything to lose, Maya.
10:15That's why I'm trying to keep you alive.
10:18The words sank into me, heavy and warm.
10:20I wanted to ask him why, why me, why now, but he looked like a man who didn't explain
10:27himself.
10:28So I just whispered,
10:30Then tell me what you're not saying.
10:34He didn't answer.
10:36Instead, he reached out, tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and said quietly,
10:41Go back to bed.
10:44You'll need your strength.
10:46For what?
10:46I didn't ask.
10:48Days blurred into weeks.
10:49I told myself it was temporary.
10:51But every morning I woke up to the same sun filtering through the same glass walls.
10:56And every night I heard the same low rumble of cars outside.
11:00Men patrolling the perimeter.
11:01Eli loved it there.
11:03He had space, toys, a yard, and a man who somehow made time for him.
11:08Adrian would come home late, still in his black shirt, loosened tie, and somehow end up
11:13helping Eli build Lego castles in the study.
11:16He never smiled, but his eyes softened in a way that made my throat ache.
11:21Once I caught them talking.
11:23Eli asked,
11:25Do you have a family?
11:27Adrian paused.
11:28Not anymore.
11:30Did they go far away?
11:31Far enough.
11:33Eli thought for a moment, then said,
11:35You can borrow mine.
11:38Adrian didn't answer.
11:40He just nodded.
11:41And when he turned toward me, something in his gaze broke.
11:45Just for a second.
11:46It was easy to forget who he was when he did things like that.
11:50Easy to pretend he wasn't the kind of man people whispered about.
11:54But the illusion shattered one night.
11:57I was in the kitchen, humming while cleaning up Eli's dinner plate,
12:01when I heard shouting downstairs.
12:04Not Adrian's voice, someone else's, rough and frantic.
12:06I froze.
12:08Then a gunshot.
12:09I ran.
12:11Adrian was standing by the front door, calm as always,
12:14while two of his men dragged someone bleeding across the marble floor.
12:18The blood looked wrong against all that white.
12:21When he saw me, his jaw tightened.
12:23Maya, upstairs now.
12:25My knees locked.
12:26Is he dead?
12:27His voice was cold.
12:29He will be, I wanted to scream.
12:31To grab Eli and run.
12:33But he was already at the bottom of the stairs,
12:35watching us both, wide-eyed and silent.
12:39Adrian turned toward him,
12:40his expression shifting instantly,
12:43steel to something softer.
12:45Eli, go to your room.
12:46Everything's fine.
12:48It's not fine, Eli whispered.
12:51Adrian crouched, looked him in the eyes.
12:53You're right.
12:54But it will be, I promise.
12:56He didn't make promises often.
12:58That's how I knew he meant it.
12:59Later?
13:00When the house went quiet again,
13:02I found him sitting in his study,
13:04staring at a fire that burned too perfectly.
13:07You said we were safe, I said.
13:10You are safe.
13:11Then what the hell was that?
13:13Business, I laughed bitterly.
13:15You call murder business?
13:16He stood,
13:17came closer until I could feel the heat from him.
13:20I call survival business.
13:21And I told you,
13:23I'd protect you.
13:24That includes dealing with people
13:25who think they can use you to get to me.
13:28Use me?
13:29How?
13:29He hesitated.
13:30Then he handed me a file.
13:32My name again.
13:33The same forged accounts,
13:35but this time with photos.
13:37Me, Eli, our apartment.
13:39Someone had been watching us
13:41long before Adrian stepped in.
13:43My stomach turned.
13:45You knew about this?
13:46I found out three days ago.
13:48I took care of it.
13:50Took care of it?
13:51You mean you killed someone?
13:53I mean you and your son are breathing.
13:55Choose which one you want to keep focusing on.
13:58I wanted to hate him.
13:59I really did.
14:00But hate's a luxury
14:01when someone's already died to keep you alive.
14:04That night,
14:05I sat by Eli's bed,
14:06tracing the small curve of his hand against mine,
14:10wondering what kind of world I'd dragged him into.
14:13Around midnight,
14:15Adrian knocked softly.
14:17You should sleep,
14:18he said.
14:19I can't.
14:21He came closer,
14:23stopped at the edge of the bed.
14:24You think I wanted this life?
14:26I think you stopped wanting anything a long time ago.
14:29Something in his eyes flickered.
14:31Pain.
14:32Regret.
14:33Maybe both.
14:34I lost my family because I thought power meant control,
14:38he said quietly.
14:40It doesn't.
14:41It just means you bleed slower,
14:43I whispered.
14:44So why help us?
14:46He exhaled, long and rough.
14:48Because your boy calls my office home.
14:50And maybe that's the first honest thing anyone's ever said to me.
14:54It should have sounded creepy.
14:56Possessive.
14:57But it didn't.
14:59It sounded lonely.
15:01He reached out.
15:02His hand hovering near mine,
15:04then stopping,
15:05as if afraid to cross the distance.
15:07I know I scare you,
15:08he said.
15:09You don't scare me?
15:11I lied.
15:12He smiled faintly.
15:13You should lie better.
15:15The air between us went still.
15:17Something alive pulsed there.
15:19Something neither of us wanted to name.
15:21Then his phone buzzed.
15:23He looked at the screen,
15:25face hardening again.
15:26They're moving.
15:27We have to go.
15:29Who's moving?
15:29The ones who wanted you gone.
15:31My heart stopped.
15:33You said you took care of it.
15:34I did.
15:35But someone else is cleaning up the mess.
15:38Before I could speak,
15:39alarms blared through the house.
15:41He grabbed my wrist.
15:43Get Eli.
15:44Basement.
15:44Now.
15:45The next minutes were chaos.
15:47Shouting,
15:47gunfire,
15:48footsteps,
15:49glass breaking.
15:50I held Eli so tight he whimpered,
15:51but I couldn't loosen my grip.
15:54Adrian barked orders into a radio.
15:55His voice calm even as bullets shattered the world around us.
15:59Then silence.
16:01He turned to me,
16:02bleeding from his shoulder,
16:03still somehow steady.
16:05They're gone.
16:06I reached for him,
16:07hands shaking.
16:08You're hurt.
16:09I've been worse.
16:11Eli's voice broke the quiet.
16:13Are we going home now?
16:15Adrian looked at him,
16:16then at me.
16:17You are.
16:18Something in the way he said it made my stomach twist.
16:21He wasn't coming with us.
16:23When I tried to speak,
16:24he cut me off.
16:25They'll be looking for me,
16:26not you.
16:27I'll handle it.
16:28You get him somewhere safe.
16:30Adrian,
16:31he cupped my face then,
16:33for the first time.
16:34His hand was warm,
16:35steady.
16:35You said once I only save who I want.
16:38His voice dropped to a whisper.
16:41You were right.
16:42Then he kissed my forehead,
16:44gentle,
16:45final,
16:45and pushed us toward the car waiting behind the shattered glass doors.
16:49As the engine roared to life,
16:52I looked back.
16:54He stood there in the doorway,
16:55blood on his shirt,
16:56city lights spilling across his face.
16:59And for the first time,
17:00I understood what he'd meant when he said some people bleed slower.
17:04He was bleeding for us.
17:10They say time heals.
17:11It doesn't.
17:12It just teaches you to live with the scar.
17:15It's been six months since that night,
17:17the night Adrian sent us away,
17:20the night everything burned.
17:22Eli and I moved to a small town by the water,
17:25three hours from the city.
17:27The kind of place where people still smile at strangers,
17:30where mornings smell like salt and bread,
17:33and nights are quiet enough to hear your own guilt breathing beside you.
17:37We rent a tiny apartment above a bakery.
17:40It's nothing like the glass house.
17:42The floor creaks.
17:43The faucet leaks.
17:45But it's ours.
17:46For weeks after we arrived,
17:47I expected black cars.
17:49Footsteps outside the door.
17:51A knock in the dark.
17:52But nothing came.
17:54Just peace.
17:55Heavy, uncomfortable peace
17:56that felt like waiting for the next storm.
17:59Eli adjusted faster than I did.
18:01Kids do that.
18:02They bend where adults break.
18:04He started kindergarten,
18:05made friends,
18:06laughed again.
18:07Sometimes I catch him drawing the big house from memory.
18:10The one on the hill with all the windows.
18:13And he calls it home.
18:15When I ask him what he remembers most,
18:18he always says,
18:19the man who made pancakes in a suit.
18:21I never told him Adrian was more than that.
18:24The news said the Moretti Empire collapsed.
18:27Federal raids.
18:28Seized accounts, arrests.
18:30But his name never appeared.
18:32Not once.
18:33Like he'd vanished into smoke.
18:34I told myself he was gone.
18:37Dead, maybe.
18:37It was easier than hoping.
18:39But hope's a parasite.
18:40It grows even when you starve it.
18:42Every morning.
18:43I wake up and half expect him to be standing in the doorway.
18:47Sleeves rolled.
18:48Calm as ever.
18:49Saying something absurd like,
18:50You didn't really think I'd let you go, did you?
18:53But he never comes.
18:54Until he does.
18:55It happened on a Thursday.
18:57The bakery downstairs was closing.
18:59And I was cleaning up,
19:00listening to the sound of Eli humming in the next room.
19:03The sunset turned everything gold.
19:05The kind of gold that makes even broken things look whole for a second.
19:10Then there was a knock.
19:11Three slow taps.
19:13Not hurried.
19:14Not afraid.
19:15Just certain.
19:16I froze.
19:17My hands shook as I opened the door.
19:19And there he was.
19:21Adrian.
19:22Alive.
19:24He looked different.
19:25Older.
19:27His black shirt was rumpled.
19:29A scar cut across his jaw.
19:30And his eyes.
19:32God, his eyes.
19:33We're tired.
19:34But he was there.
19:36Flesh and breath in danger.
19:37Hi, Maya.
19:38My throat closed.
19:39You're supposed to be dead.
19:41He almost smiled.
19:42I get that a lot.
19:44Then silence.
19:45Six months of silence condensed into one impossible moment.
19:49Finally, I whispered.
19:50Why are you here?
19:53He looked past me toward Eli's room, then back at me.
19:57To see if I did the right thing.
19:59I wanted to scream at him.
20:01For leaving.
20:02For bleeding.
20:03For walking back into my life like it was just another meeting on his schedule.
20:06But instead, I just stepped aside.
20:09Come in.
20:09He hesitated, then did.
20:11The apartment was too small for him.
20:13He filled it just by breathing.
20:15He ran a hand over the wall like he was grounding himself.
20:18You did good, Maya.
20:19You made this work.
20:21Barely.
20:22Barely still counts.
20:24I laughed bitterly.
20:26You disappeared, Adrian.
20:27No calls.
20:28No message.
20:28Nothing.
20:29I couldn't.
20:30Couldn't or wouldn't.
20:32He met my eyes and I saw it.
20:33The weight he carried.
20:34Both.
20:36He sat at the small table.
20:38Elbows on his knees.
20:39The world's most dangerous man in a room that smelled like sugar and bread.
20:45After that night, I had to disappear.
20:47Too many names.
20:48Too many debts.
20:49If I stayed, you'd have been collateral.
20:51So what changed?
20:52He exhaled.
20:54They're gone.
20:55The ones who wanted you.
20:56The ones who wanted me.
20:58I studied him.
20:59And you?
21:00He smiled faintly.
21:01Still here, somehow.
21:03Eli's voice came from behind me.
21:05Mommy, who's that?
21:06Adrian turned.
21:08I saw the crack in his composure when he saw Eli, bigger now, braver, holding a drawing
21:13in one hand.
21:15Hey, kid.
21:17Adrian said softly.
21:19You still drawing cars?
21:21Eli blinked.
21:22You remember me.
21:23Hard to forget someone who offered me his family.
21:26Eli beamed.
21:27Mommy said you went far away.
21:30I did.
21:31Adrian knelt, meeting him at eye level.
21:33But I found my way back.
21:35Eli nodded, like that was the most natural thing in the world, then ran off to show him
21:40a picture of the glass house.
21:42I stood there, arms crossed, trying to rebuild all the walls I'd spent months tearing down.
21:48He still talks about you.
21:50Adrian's voice softened.
21:52He saved me, you know, I frowned.
21:55What are you talking about?
21:56When I sent you away, I thought I was ending something.
21:59But all I could think about was him.
22:01The way he looked at me like I wasn't a monster.
22:03I wanted to be worthy of that.
22:06The silence that followed felt heavier than words.
22:09Then he said,
22:10I fixed what I could.
22:12The fake accounts, your name, it's all gone.
22:14You're clean now.
22:15I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath until it left me in a rush.
22:19So this is goodbye again?
22:21He looked at me for a long time.
22:23It doesn't have to be.
22:24My chest ached.
22:25Don't do that.
22:26Do what?
22:27Say things that sound like promises.
22:29You don't get to walk back into my life and...
22:31I didn't come to take anything, he said.
22:34I came to see if you were safe.
22:36To see if he was happy.
22:38To see if I could finally let go.
22:40I wanted to believe him.
22:41But part of me...
22:43Part of me still belonged to that night.
22:45That house.
22:46That version of him who kissed my forehead and told me to run.
22:50He stood.
22:51About to leave.
22:52And something in me snapped.
22:54Wait.
22:55He turned.
22:56I stepped closer.
22:57You said you wanted to see if you did the right thing.
23:00You did.
23:00We're alive.
23:01But don't you dare pretend that means it didn't matter.
23:04His voice dropped.
23:05It mattered, Maya.
23:06Every damn second.
23:09He looked like he wanted to touch me, but didn't.
23:12The space between us was full of all the things we never said.
23:16Then Eli came running out with a small paper bag.
23:19Wait.
23:20Don't go.
23:21You forgot your cookies.
23:22Adrian laughed.
23:23Quiet.
23:24Rough.
23:25The kind of laugh that hurt to hear because it sounded like the first time he'd done it in years.
23:30He took the bag.
23:31Ruffled Eli's hair.
23:33Thanks, kid.
23:34Eli looked up at him seriously.
23:36You can come back.
23:38We got pancakes now.
23:40Adrian met my eyes over his head.
23:42Maybe I will.
23:43After he left, I sat on the couch for a long time, staring at the door like it might open again.
23:49But it didn't.
23:50Weeks passed.
23:51Life resumed its rhythm.
23:53School runs.
23:54Work.
23:54The smell of sugar and ocean.
23:56I stopped expecting him to return.
23:58Then one morning, I opened the mailbox and found an envelope.
24:02No name.
24:03No return address.
24:04Just a single sheet inside.
24:05It was a deed.
24:06To a house.
24:07The address was in our town.
24:08By the cliffs overlooking the sea.
24:10And scribbled at the bottom.
24:12In handwriting I'd know anywhere.
24:14For Eli.
24:14A boy should have a place he calls home.
24:18I didn't cry.
24:20Not right away.
24:21I just stood there, staring at the paper until the words blurred.
24:25That weekend, I took Eli to see it.
24:28It wasn't a mansion.
24:30Not glass, not marble.
24:31Just a simple house with wide windows and sunlight in every room.
24:34The walls were bare.
24:36The air still smelled of paint.
24:38Eli ran from room to room, shouting,
24:41It echoes, Mommy.
24:42Just like before.
24:43I laughed through the tears.
24:45When he ran outside to explore,
24:48I found something on the kitchen counter.
24:50A photo.
24:51The three of us.
24:52Me, Adrian, and Eli.
24:54Taken months ago.
24:55In the garden of that glass house.
24:57I didn't remember it being taken.
24:59On the back, two words.
25:02We made it.
25:03I sat there for a long time.
25:06Holding that picture.
25:08Feeling something settle in me for the first time in years.
25:10It wasn't closure.
25:13Not exactly.
25:14More like acceptance.
25:16He wasn't coming back.
25:17Not in the way I once wanted.
25:19But he'd kept his promise.
25:21We were safe.
25:22Free.
25:23And that had to be enough.
25:25That night, after Eli fell asleep in his new room,
25:29I stepped out onto the porch.
25:31The sea wind was cold.
25:33Sharp.
25:34The stars looked too far away to touch.
25:36I whispered into the dark.
25:38You found your redemption, Adrian.
25:41I found mine.
25:43Then, for the first time in a long time, I let myself breathe.
25:47Because maybe love isn't about keeping someone.
25:50Maybe it's about being changed by them.
25:52And he had changed me.
25:54Ruined me.
25:55Rebuilt me.
25:56Healed me in the strangest, truest way.
25:59Eli called his office home once.
26:01Now he had a real one.
26:02And me?
26:03I finally did, too.
26:05If you felt her story tug at your heart the way it did mine,
26:09don't leave yet.
26:11Subscribe to Mafia Romance Narration
26:12and stay with me for the next confession.
26:15Another story of danger, devotion, and love
26:17that never asked permission.
26:20Like, comment, and share
26:22if you believe even the darkest hearts can fall for the right soul.
26:33Like, comment, and share with you in the future?
26:51Thank you, Rod Newell.
26:52ー
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