Chapter 20
The next few years were the golden years.
The ones I’d always dreamed of but never thought I’d have.
Sophie was sixteen now.
Beautiful.
Smart.
A leader.
She was captain of the volleyball team.
She was president of the student council.
She still ran her allergy bracelet business, which had grown so big she had to hire her friends to help.
She was dating a nice boy named Ethan.
Honor student.
Also on the volleyball team.
Tom and I liked him immediately.
Daniel did too, after the first “I have a shotgun” speech.
We were all dreading her junior year.
SATs.
College visits.
The beginning of the end of her childhood.
But we were excited too.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
And nothing was going to stop her.
My business was now the largest allergy consulting firm in the Southwest.
We had twenty employees.
Offices in three cities.
I’d just published my fourth book.
A memoir about everything we’d been through.
It was a bestseller.
I was getting letters every day from parents all over the world.
Telling me my story had given them strength.
That they’d fought for their kids because of me.
That they’d won.
It was humbling.
Amazing.
Tom and I were happier than ever.
We’d been married five years.
And it just kept getting better.
We still worked together.
We still traveled together.
We still made each other laugh every single day.
Jessica and Maya got married that spring.
A beautiful ceremony in our backyard.
Sophie was the maid of honor.
I cried through the whole thing.
My best friend.
My partner.
My sister in every way that mattered.
She’d been there through it all.
The worst nights.
The best days.
I didn’t know where I’d be without her.
That summer, we all went to Italy again.
The whole family.
Me, Tom, Sophie, Ethan, Jessica, Maya, Daniel, Lisa, Linda, her husband Mark, their two boys, and Marnie.
Fourteen of us.
We rented a big villa in Tuscany.
We ate.
We drank.
We laughed.
We explored old cities and beautiful countryside.
One night, we were all sitting outside under the stars.
Drinking wine.
The kids were swimming in the pool.
Marnie raised her glass.
“To family,” she said. “The one we’re born into. And the one we choose. Both matter. Both are precious. But the ones who choose us? The ones who stay, even when it’s hard? Those are the ones who get you through.”
We all raised our glasses.
“To family,” we echoed.
I looked around the table.
At all these people I loved.
People who’d fought for me.
People who’d chosen me.
People I’d chosen.
I thought about where I’d been ten years earlier.
Alone.
Scared.
Running from my own husband.
Wondering if my daughter would ever be safe.
And here I was.
Surrounded by love.
By success.
By joy.
It had been a long, hard road.
But every step had been worth it.
Because it had led me here.
To this moment.
To these people.
To this life.
Tom squeezed my hand under the table.
May you like
“You okay?” he whispered.
“I’m perfect,” I said. “Absolutely perfect.”
