Miles kissed the top of Cal’s head. “I understand now.”
She reached out and touched his wrist. “Then let us move forward. Together. No more disappearing.”
Outside, Redwood Plains stretched quiet and humble, but alive. Miles realized that wealth was never a number. It was Tessa’s smile returning by centimeters. It was Cal’s fingers curling around his thumb. It was the weight of belonging to a home that had not given up.
He looked at them, heart full and bruised and beating fiercely. He understood that what matters is not the riches you carry back with you, but the courage to stay.
No treasure could rival the moment he walked through a doorway and found his family breathing, waiting, alive.
