Chapter 4 - The Horizon
The graduation ceremony at Ellison University was held under a clear, blue sky.
I walked across the stage, my cap and gown fitting perfectly.
My name was called.
“Ava Whitmore—Magna Cum Laude.”
The applause was loud.
I didn't look for my parents in the crowd.
I didn't look for Brandon.
I knew where they were.
They were still in the system, still paying the price for the life they had stolen.
I looked at the people who were actually there for me—my roommates, the professors who had mentored me, the friends I had made who didn't care about my past.
They were the family I had built from the ashes.
After the ceremony, I walked to the edge of the campus.
I looked at the view of the city.
I thought about the girl who had cleaned offices at night, the one who had hidden a coffee can under her bed.
I wanted to tell her that it was going to be okay.
That the pain was the price of admission to a better life.
My phone rang.
It was a call from the prison.
I hadn't blocked the number, but I hadn't answered it in years.
I let it ring.
I watched the screen as it went to voicemail.
“Ava, please. It’s Dad. I’m out in six months. I have nowhere to go. Please.”
I listened to the voice.
It sounded old.
It sounded defeated.
I didn't feel rage.
I didn't feel bitterness.
I felt a strange, detached pity.
I tapped the screen and deleted the message.
I didn't hate them anymore.
Hate was still a connection.
I had moved on to something much better: indifference.
I turned the phone off and put it in my pocket.
My professor walked up to me, smiling.
“Congratulations, Ava. We have a position open in the research lab. Are you interested?”
I looked at the horizon.
“I’d love to,” I said.
I turned away from the past and began to walk toward my future.
The road was long, and for once, I was the one holding the map.
I had erased the signature they had tried to force on me, and in its place, I had written my own name.
I was Ava Whitmore.
May you like
I was an engineer.
And I was finally, completely, mine.
