ARIA

For a long, agonizing minute, the old lawyer didn't move. He just looked at the sharp, unfamiliar face, searching for the ghost of the girl he had watched grow up and then, tears fell freely down his cheek. He buried his face in his wrinkled hands, his shoulders shaking with quiet, ragged breaths.

I didn't rush around the desk to comfort him. I gave him a moment to mourn the three years he thought I was rotting in the ground.

When he finally lowered his hands, his eyes were red, but the sharp, brilliant legal mind that my father had trusted was back online. He didn't need to ask...