The final morning of the story arrived with a clear sky and a gentle wind that moved across the cliffs like a soft hand. Elena stood at the open window of the old house and breathed the clean salt air. Below her the sea was bright and steady. The long days of rain and darkness had passed. The letters had been read. The silence had been broken. The shadow that once watched from the rocks no longer held power over the house or over the two people who lived inside it.

Adrian came and stood beside her. He did not speak at once. They had grown used to comfortable silence in the days since the gathering in the town hall. The truth was now part of Silver Bay’s open history. Some people still spoke of it in low voices. Thomas had kept away from the cliffs and from the old house. The land near the edge of the sea remained a question for the future, but it was no longer protected by a lie.