Chapter 5: Second Chances

I rested here, and in my spare time, wandered around the Harper family’s old neighborhood for several blocks.

The neighbors had long since moved away; this street was rarely visited.

People in Maple Heights said there were too many ghosts here, the place felt haunted.

At night, the cicadas would shrill, and I’d see porch lights flicker on and off down the empty street, as if the past itself was trying to find its way home. Sometimes, I’d sit on the stoop, breathing in the smell of cut grass and barbecue from someone grilling a few blocks over. Somewhere, a kid practiced free throws against a garage door, the thud echoing down the block.

Caleb told me that in past years he’d worked as a security guard, but recently returned to Maple Heights to settle down and stop drifting.

When he talked about his wild adventures as a guard, Caleb was full of youthful energy, handsome and spirited.

He was nothing like the skinny boy who used to cry and cling to me after losing a fight.

I asked him why he no longer worked as a guard.

"Drifting from place to place, never knowing where I’d end up. It’s pointless."

Caleb lowered his head, his voice muffled.

"Besides, I was afraid that if you were still alive and came home, you wouldn’t find me."

He made red bean and pork stew, just as I loved as a kid, and steamed a basket of homemade rolls.

"You gotta eat, Nat. You’re all bones—don’t make me call your mom’s ghost to scold you."

"I just got over being sick, so I can’t eat too much meat," I smiled, picking up food for him instead.

Caleb’s expression darkened.

"Did you get hurt in Savannah?" he suddenly asked.

I hid my troubles, only telling him that I had saved Andrew and was not the villain people gossiped about.

Also, that the Governor’s Mansion was grand and splendid, and I had lived peacefully for a time.

"Peacefully?" Caleb suddenly interrupted.

He grabbed my right hand, furious: "Such a deep scar, and you call that peaceful?"

I was a little embarrassed.

That was the scar left from shielding Andrew from an attacker’s knife.

The blade pierced through the back of my hand—it was terrifying. The pain, the fear, and the moment Andrew dismissed me as clumsy—all those memories spiraled through me. I forced a smile, trying to push it all away.

Andrew had once risked his life to climb a dangerous cliff for herbs, vowing to protect me forever.

But later, just because my right hand trembled when pouring tea for Emily McCarthy, he coldly scolded me for being clumsy and rude. That, too, was him.

I covered my right hand, forcing a smile.

"Let’s not talk about it."

Looking around at the little yard, unchanged after eight years, grass growing, robins singing, I sighed from the heart.

"At least the old house is still here, my hometown is still here, and old friends are still here."

The tea reflected Caleb’s eyes, full of pain.

He looked at me, his gaze deep as the ocean, brimming with tenderness.

My heart fluttered. I didn’t dare look at him, only lowered my head, listening to birds and children’s laughter outside the yard.

Maple Heights is so wonderful.

So wonderful that the past feels like a dream.

I stayed in Maple Heights from then on.

Three months later, the town’s first security agency opened.

It was called Harper & Co.

I painted the old wooden sign by hand, the brush trembling just a bit. It felt like a promise I was making not only to Maple Heights, but to myself.