CHAPTER NINETEEN – RINA
Five years.
I could hardly believe it had been that long since I first stepped into Calderhallow with nothing but a suitcase, a broken heart, and a secret I wasn't ready to face.
I used to cry myself to sleep every night. I used to wake up with that same heaviness in my chest, wondering how I'd make it through another day.
But not anymore.
This morning, I stood in front of the same mirror that once showed me a broken stranger and I smiled. Not because everything magically worked out, but because I survived. I fought through the nights that felt endless, through the mornings where I wanted to stay in bed and let the world forget me.
I got up anyway.
Piece by piece, I built myself again. I learned to love my own company, to sit with the quiet and not fear it. I forgave myself for staying too long where I wasn't valued, for holding on to what was already gone. I let go.
And now?
Now I stand taller. The past doesn't sting like it used to it doesn't control me. It taught me. It shaped me. It made me stronger. I walk through the world lighter, freer, knowing that nothing and no one can take away the woman I've become.
I am not just the girl who was hurt.
I am not just the woman who was broken.
I am the woman who got back up.
I am now a "MOTHER"!.
And that… that is my victory.
Now, the shop was bustling, the girls were five, and life impossibly felt good again.
"Lila, no running in the shop!" I called as my oldest darted between shelves, giggling. Isla followed close behind, their matching curls bouncing.
They froze guiltily, then grinned. "Sorry, Mama!"
"Uh-huh," I said, hiding a smile as I finished arranging the new line of candles on the display.
The shop bell chimed, and a group of women entered, the kind of polished visitors who usually only passed through Calderhallow on their way to bigger cities.
"Is this where we can try the famous perfume?" one of them asked, excitement in her voice.
"Famous?" I repeated, blinking.
She laughed. "Someone brought a bottle to a party last week, and everyone kept asking where it came from. We drove two hours just to find you."
Two hours.
My heart thudded.
"Then you came to the right place," I said, forcing my voice steady. "Let me show you our newest blend."
They left with half my stock.
That evening, after the girls were in bed, I sat with Liora on the porch. She visited often now sometimes staying for weeks between her tours. She was brighter these days, her laugh freer, her music known in places we'd only dreamed of when we were younger.
"You're practically a celebrity," I teased.
"And you're practically a business tycoon," she shot back, grinning.
I shook my head. "It's just a small shop, Li."
She gave me a look. "A small shop that people are now traveling from other towns to visit. Do you even realize how big this could get? You've created something incredible."
I stared at my hands, remembering the night I first mixed that scent, searching for something that felt like hope.
"It wasn't supposed to be anything big," I admitted. "I just… needed to create something that reminded me there was still beauty in the world."
"And you did," she said softly. "Now you have to decide what to do with it."
Two days later, the man from before the one who'd left his card months ago returned.
"You've caused quite a stir," he said with a smile, stepping into the shop. "Investors are interested. There's a market for something like this bigger than Calderhallow."
"Bigger?" I repeated, my stomach knotting.
"Distribution. Branding. We could take this to every major city. If you're willing."
I hesitated, glancing at the rows of candles, the jars of oils, the little pieces of myself scattered across the shelves.
I had built all of this from nothing.
I had built myself from nothing.
And now the world was knocking.
That night, I lay awake listening to the girls breathe in the next room.
Lila had asked me earlier if I would ever take them to see a "big city."
I told her maybe one day.
But the truth was, I was scared.
Arden City was more than just a place — it was a wound I had never reopened.
And yet…
I couldn't ignore the feeling building in my chest, the whisper that maybe it was time.
Not yet.
But soon.
When I finally fell asleep, I dreamed of walking into a city full of lights not as the broken girl I had been, but as someone stronger.
Someone unafraid.
Someone ready.