Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three: The Anniversary of Sobriety
Victoria had been sober for twenty-five years.
Lina almost missed the anniversary. It snuck up on her, buried under work and school projects and the endless chaos of raising twins. But Victoria did not forget. She marked the day with a quiet visit to her AA meeting and a long walk in the park, the same park where she used to take Ethan when he was little.
Lina found her there, sitting on a bench, watching the ducks.
"Happy anniversary," Lina said, sitting beside her.
Victoria smiled. "Thank you."
"How do you feel?"
Victoria was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "Different. Lighter. Like I've been carrying something for so long that I forgot what it felt like to put it down."
Lina nodded. "That's called healing."
"Is that what this is?"
"I think so."
Victoria looked at the ducks. "I used to come here with Ethan. When he was little. He loved the ducks. He would throw them bread and laugh and laugh."
Lina smiled. "He's still like that. He just hides it better."
Victoria laughed. "He gets that from me. The hiding."
They sat in silence, watching the ducks.
"I'm proud of you," Lina said.
Victoria turned to look at her. "No one has ever said that to me. Not like that. Not like they meant it."
"I mean it."
Victoria's eyes filled with tears. "Thank you."
Lina took her hand.
"Thank you for being here," she said. "For staying. For fighting."
Victoria squeezed her hand.
"Thank you for giving me a reason to fight," she said.
---
The family celebrated that night.
Ethan cooked. The twins made cards. Lina set the table with the good dishes and lit candles and put flowers in a vase. Maya came with her mother. Victor and Katherine came too. David came with Sarah and Michael and Emily. The penthouse was full of people who loved Victoria and wanted her to know it.
Victoria arrived at six o'clock, dressed in a simple blue dress that Lina had never seen before.
"You look beautiful," Lina said.
Victoria touched her hair, self-conscious. "I wanted to look nice. For the occasion."
"It's just us."
"I know. That's why I wanted to look nice."
They sat down to dinner.
Ethan had made roast chicken and vegetables and a salad that the twins refused to eat. Lily spent the entire meal trying to feed Sprinkles under the table. Leo explained, in great detail, why ducks were actually more interesting than people thought.
Victoria listened to all of it. She laughed at Lily's jokes. She asked Leo questions about ducks. She ate every bite of her dinner and thanked Ethan for cooking.
After dinner, Lina brought out a small cake.
It was not fancy—just a simple vanilla cake with white frosting and the words Twenty-Five Years written in blue icing. But Victoria looked at it like it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
"You didn't have to," Victoria said.
"We wanted to," Lina replied.
The twins sang "Happy Birthday" even though it was not a birthday. Victoria blew out the candles. She made a wish.
She did not tell anyone what it was.
But Lina saw her look at Ethan. At the twins. At Maya. At Victor and Katherine. At David and his new family. At Lina herself.
And she knew.
---
After the twins were asleep and the guests had gone home, Lina and Victoria sat in the garden.
The stars were out, scattered across the sky like tiny diamonds. The air was cool and quiet.
"I used to look at the stars when I was in prison," Victoria said. "Through the window in my cell. I would try to find constellations. I would pretend I was somewhere else."
"Where did you pretend to be?"
Victoria smiled. "Here. With Ethan. With the family I had lost. I used to imagine that I was sitting in a garden, looking at the stars, and that everything was okay."
Lina looked up at the sky.
"And now?" she asked.
Victoria looked up too.
"Now I'm here," she said. "And everything is okay."
They sat in silence, watching the stars.
Lina thought about Victoria's journey—from the accident to the prison to the penthouse. From shame to sobriety to hope. From a woman who believed she was a monster to a woman who was learning to be human.
"I'm proud of you," Lina said again.
Victoria turned to look at her.
"I'm proud of me too," she said. "For the first time in a very long time."
Lina took her hand.
"Good," she said. "You should be."
---
The Next Morning
Victoria came to breakfast with a smile on her face.
She helped the twins get dressed. She made pancakes with chocolate chips. She read them a story about a brave little duck who saved her family from a storm.
Ethan watched his mother from across the kitchen.
"She seems different," he said to Lina.
"She is different," Lina replied. "She's becoming herself."
Ethan was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "I'm glad. I'm glad she's here."
Lina put her hand on his arm. "Me too."
Victoria looked up from the storybook and caught them watching her.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing," Lina said. "We're just happy."
Victoria smiled.
And for the first time in a very long time, she let herself believe that she deserved to be happy too.
---
The Letter
A week later, Victoria received a letter.
It was from Daniel Webb, Marcus's brother.
Victoria,
I heard about your anniversary. Twenty-five years. That's a long time.
I'm not writing to forgive you. I'm not writing to forget. I'm writing to tell you that I see you. I see the woman you're becoming. I see the effort you're making.
I'm not there yet. I don't know if I'll ever be there. But I'm trying too.
Maybe that's enough.
—Daniel
Victoria read the letter twice.
Then she put it in the box with her chips—the bronze and silver and gold, the milestones of her recovery.
She was not the woman she had been.
She was someone new.
And someone new deserved a new beginning.
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End of Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three