Chapter 15 - A Promise Kept
The sliding glass door opened, and Maya walked out onto the deck. She was wearing a bright yellow sundress, her gray eyes—so remarkably like her mother’s—sparkling with life. The shadow of fear that had haunted her face on that terrible winter night was entirely gone.
"Uncle Elias?" she asked, walking up to his chair.
"Yes, Maya?"
"Marta says it's time for lunch. She made pancakes."
Elias smiled, reaching out to ruffle her hair. "Pancakes for lunch? Don't tell my medical colleagues. They'd have my license for that amount of sugar."
Maya giggled, leaning against his chair. She looked out at the massive steel gates at the bottom of the driveway, baking in the warm afternoon sun.
"You kept the wolves out, Uncle Elias," she said softly, echoing the words she had spoken when she first collapsed in the snow.
Elias wrapped his good arm around her, pulling her into a tight, warm hug. He thought of Clara, of the unimaginable sacrifice she had made to give her children a chance at life. He had failed his sister once by turning her away, but he would spend the rest of his life making sure her children never knew a day of fear again.
May you like
"I did, sweetheart," Elias whispered into her hair. "And I always will. No more wolves. Let's go eat."
They walked back into the bright, warm house together, leaving the darkness of the past buried forever in the melting mountain snow.
