Chapter 33 The New Beginning

• Florence – Monday Morning
• Elena stood at the edge of the school grounds, sunlight draping her in soft gold. The morning air was cool, fragrant with olive trees, fresh earth, and the distant scent of bread baking in neighborhood ovens. A bell rang faintly in the distance. Children’s laughter rose like music from the courtyard, bright and untamed. For the first time in months, her lips curved into a smile not born from survival, but serenity.
• She wasn’t the woman she had been.