_Kaelen’s POV_
I found Grandma in the garden at seven in the morning.
She was sitting on the bench near the rose bushes she had maintained herself for thirty years, hands folded over her cane, looking at nothing specific.
The garden itself was the same as it had always been, her domain, untouched by the removal teams because none of it had been on the asset list. But from where she sat, she had a clear view of the east wing windows, and those windows were bare now.
No curtains. Just glass and the morning light coming through at an angle that made the emptiness visible from thirty feet away.
She didn’t look up when I came out.
I sat on the other end of the bench and said nothing.
We stayed like that for a while.
“I didn’t think she’d actually do it,” Grandma said f
