Fifteen Years Later
Lila was twenty when she left for college.
She chose a school four hours away — the same distance Amina had once traveled. Elias had tried very hard not to make a big deal about it, but the night before she left, I caught him sitting in her empty room at two in the morning, just staring at the walls.
“She’s ready,” I told him, leaning in the doorway.
He didn’t look at me. “I know. That doesn’t make it easier.”
Amina had come home for the weekend to help Lila pack. She was thirty-six now, married to Noah for eight years, and working as a therapist specializing in grief and family transitions. She had built a quiet, steady life two towns over. They didn’t have children yet. She had told us, privately, that she wasn’t sure if she ever would. We had told her that was o
