Chapter 15: The Unbroken Shore
Ten years later.
The morning sun broke over the Atlantic horizon, flooding the Maine coastline in a breathtaking canopy of gold, rose, and amber light.
Clara stood on the flat granite bluffs behind the cottage in Cape Elizabeth, holding a steaming mug of black coffee. She was in her early forties now, a few silver strands catching the light in her hair, her face radiant with the deep, immovable peace of a life lived in truth.
Down in the cove, David and seventeen-year-old Evelyn were rigging the sails on *The Lady Evelyn*, their voices and easy laughter carrying across the water like music.
Evelyn had inherited her mother’s sharp mind and her father’s gentle hands; she was preparing to enter the marine biology program at Bowdoin College in the autumn on a full merit scholarship.
David looked up from the skiff, saw Clara standing on the bluff, and raised his hand with a warm, loving wave.
Clara waved back, feeling an immense, boundless gratitude fill every corner of her soul.
She looked down at her simple oak-and-pearl wedding band, then looked out over the vast, sparkling ocean.
May you like
The cold rain of that distant night in Newport was gone forever, washed away into the tides of time.
All that remained was the sacred ground—held by honest love, consecrated by service to others, and standing strong against every storm in the eternal, unbroken light.
