Chapter 10: The Golden Hour
Chapter 10: The Golden Hour
A year and a half later, the afternoon sun cast a warm, golden glow over the farmhouse.
Ethan was in the kitchen, awkwardly attempting to flip a pancake and failing miserably as it landed half on the stove. He laughed, grabbing a spatula to scrape it off.
The screen door banged open, and Ava ran inside. She was thirteen now, wearing mud-stained jeans and a faded t-shirt, a massive golden retriever puppy trailing happily at her heels. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were bright and full of life. There was no trace of the terrified girl scrubbing the marble foyer.
"Dad, look!" Ava shouted, holding up a canvas. She had taken up painting, finding a way to express the emotions she used to bottle up. It was a messy, beautiful landscape of the oak trees in their backyard, painted in vibrant, unapologetic colors.
"Ava, that's incredible," Ethan said, wiping his hands on a towel and walking over to admire it. "You really captured the light."
"I think I want to hang it in the living room," she said proudly. "But... Buster tracked mud onto the rug in the hallway. I can clean it up before I hang the painting."
She said it casually. No fear. No shaking hands. Just a normal teenager acknowledging a mess.
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"Leave the mud for a minute," Ethan smiled, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "Let's hang the painting first. The house can wait."
As they walked into the living room together, Ethan looked at his daughter's confident smile. The mansion on Willow Crest Drive had looked flawless from the outside, but it was empty. This farmhouse was messy, loud, and imperfect. But as Ethan watched Ava proudly hang her canvas on the wall, he knew it was the most beautiful thing he had ever built.
