“This ends today,” I finally said, with a firmness I didn’t know I possessed.
My mother frowned, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“It means I’ll take care of the debts,” I replied. “But Hue will never have to go through this again.”
The silence that followed was different; it wasn’t tense, it was definitive, like a line that could no longer be crossed backwards.
My mother didn’t respond immediately, and I saw something break on her face, something she had perhaps been holding onto for years.
Hue slowly raised his gaze, and for the first time since I entered, his eyes showed something close to relief.
It wasn’t a perfect solution, nor a clean ending, but it was a decision.
And sometimes, that’s the only thing that truly changes the course of a life
