Chapter 3: The Departure from the Suburbs
Lucas sat in the coffee shop, closed the security application on his laptop, and took a slow, quiet sip of his black coffee.
He did not feel a rush of spiteful triumph. He felt only the vast, clean sorrow of a man who had finally cut the anchor of an illusion that had dragged him toward the bottom for a decade.
Lucas had grown up in the shadow of their parents' favoritism.
Every mistake Kyle made was excused as ""artistic temperament""; every sacrifice Lucas made was treated as an uncredited family obligation. When Lucas paid off Kyle’s twenty-thousand-dollar credit card debt four years earlier, his parents had simply told him: *""You have to help your brother, Lucas. You’re the strong one.""*
Lucas closed his laptop, placed it into his leather messenger bag, and walked out into the Portland rain.
He did not drive back to the craftsman bungalow in the city.
He had spent the last two months finalizing a major life transition: he had transferred the property on Elmwood Avenue into a long-term lease agreement with *The Cascade Veterans Housing Initiative*, providing four subsidized housing units for former military service members transitioning into vocational trades.
Lucas got into his 2017 Subaru Outback, packed with three trunks of architectural drawings, drafting instruments, and carpentry hand tools.
May you like
He turned the ignition key, pointed the headlights east, and drove toward the Columbia River Gorge.
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