She Turned Her Grief Into Wings novel Chapter 24

Shera looked him dead in the eye, her tone serious. "No matter how far I make it this time, promise me you won't interfere."

Rhys's face softened with indulgence. "I know. You want to win on your own merit."

"Exactly."

Over dinner, the two of them reminisced about the old days.

Under the warm restaurant lights, Shera spoke animatedly, while Rhys rested his chin on his hand, just watching her, quietly listening.

The spark had returned to her eyes, and looking at her, his own dark eyes seemed to glow.

The wedge that time had driven between them felt like it was finally shrinking.

—

By the time he dropped Shera off and returned to his own place, it was well past midnight.

Moonlight spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows into his living room. Rhys sat on the rug, opening a cardboard box.

It was filled with an eclectic mix of items, but everything was neatly organized. Despite being years old, the contents smelled perfectly clean, completely devoid of mustiness—a testament to how often he went through it.

Rhys reached in and pulled out a school uniform shirt that had been washed so many times it was wrinkled and slightly yellowed. The rusted name tag pinned to it bore a few faded words.

*Fifth Grade, Rhys Jewell.*

On the sleeve, there was a clumsy, lopsided daisy embroidered in thread.

His mind drifted back to that year, back to when Shera and Lenny Jewell had first brought him home off the streets.

He had been drifting for so long that he possessed an intense, instinctual paranoia toward everything. Every day, aside from eating and sleeping, he would just sit in a corner and stare blankly at the wall.

When Lenny realized the boy hadn't spoken a single word in the three months he'd lived with them, he took him to the hospital. The doctor diagnosed him with psychogenic mutism, likely triggered by severe trauma.

Every day after school, Shera would plop down next to him. She'd tell him she scored a ninety-eight on her math quiz, complain about what she had for lunch at the cafeteria, and brag about how all the girls in her class were jealous of the new dresses her dad made for her.

She chattered away endlessly, like a little sparrow.

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