Elena slipped her hand into his.
Behind them, footsteps approached. Thomas appeared first, carrying a cardboard box. Nora followed with her mother’s letters tucked safely inside a canvas bag.
Thomas placed the box on the balcony table.
“These are the employee records,” he said. “Names, contracts, unpaid wages. The investigators said I can help reconstruct the accounts.”
Marian gave him a small smile.
“You can also testify.”
“I know.”
Nora stood beside the railing.
“My mother woke up,” she said. “She remembered my father’s name before she remembered mine.”
Nora’s mouth trembled.
“She asked me whether he had really tried to stop the shipment.”
Elena reached for her hand.
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
Nora looked toward the river.
“She cried. Then she asked for breakfast.”
Julian smiled faintly.
“That sounds like a good sign.”
“It is,” Nora said. “She always wanted breakfast when she was ready to fight.”
The four of them stood together as the sun rose.
No one declared victory. No one pretended the past had disappeared. There would be hearings, depositions, years of rebuilding, and nights when a sound from the river would bring everything back.
But there would also be names restored, wages returned, children told that their fathers had not abandoned them, and a company rebuilt without fear at its center.
Elena placed both hands over her stomach.
The baby moved again.
This time Julian felt it first.
He looked at her, astonished.
“Strong,” he whispered.
“Stubborn.”
“Definitely yours.”
She nudged him with her shoulder.
