Chapter 18

I kept the lake house.
Not as a shrine.
As a refuge.
I repaired the porch.
Repainted the kitchen.
Replaced the locks.
I invited women from a legal support group to stay there for weekends when they needed quiet after divorce, fraud, or betrayal.
We called it The Blue Door House.
Because I painted the front door bright blue.
Nora said it looked like a happy bruise.
I said healing is sometimes ugly first.
The first woman who stayed there cried when she saw the clean sheets.
“He never let me rest,” she whispered.
May you like
I handed her tea.
“Then start there.”