“Lemme guess, Aderra…Ade and his ugly ass daddy?”
“Shut up.” Sabine smiled faintly.
“No shade. I love it. It’s soft and smart and sounds like something expensive. Like, ‘book your free consultation with Aderra today’ vibes.”
They both chuckled quietly.
Sabine turned on her side, pulling the blanket over her shoulder. “It felt good, Nar. Like…I didn’t know I could still feel that kind of good.”
“Because you forgot you could have something that’s just yours.”
“I didn’t forget. I just stopped reaching for it.”
They were quiet for a while, the kind of silence that only existed between sisters—through love and loyalty. Sabine finally broke it.
“I miss him.”
“I know.”
“But not like…I just miss who I thought we’d be.”
“You know, bestie,” Narri sighed. “Grief isn’t always about losing the person. Sometimes it’s about losing the story.”
Sabine’s eyes welled, but she didn’t cry. Not tonight.
“Thanks for answering.”
“Always,” Narri said. “You got this and I got you.”
3AM – JOURNAL ENTRY
Unable to sleep, Sabine opened her old leather notebook. The first few pages were code, notes, business names she’d oncebrainstormed. Then the random thoughts began—scattered lines, broken sentences. Pages she couldn’t fill back then because she didn’t have the words.
Tonight—that early morning—she did.
She flipped to a fresh page and wrote slowly:
I am learning how to return to myself.
Not as the woman I was before Adair. Or before the kids. Or before the grief.
But as the version that survived it.
The version that doesn’t need a mirror to know she’s still in here somewhere.
I have mourned a man who is still alive.
I have buried a child I never got to raise.
I have waited in silence for someone to come back and apologize, and I have learned that closure doesn’t come in someone else’s voice.
Sometimes it comes in your own.
Aderra is not just software. It is a deep breath. It is recovery. It is mine.
And I am proud of me. Even in this quiet. Especially in this quiet.
She let the pen fall loose in her hand, shut the notebook, and turned off the light.