“After the Empty Grave,” he said. “No. Maybe something simpler.”
“What?”
“Home.”
Harrison’s eyes filled, but he did not hide the tears this time.
Julian leaned his shoulder against his father’s.
“Don’t cry, Dad.”
Harrison smiled through the tears.
“I’m not crying because I lost you.”
“Then why?”
Harrison closed the pocket watch and held it in his palm, feeling the delicate heartbeat of time still moving.
“Because you came back,” he said. “And because this time, I know what to do with the time we have.”
Together they sat in the sunlight, no longer prisoners of the grave behind them, no longer servants of the lies that had brought them there. The world had taken two years, but it had not taken love. It had not taken truth. It had not taken the stubborn, sacred bond between a father and the son who found his way home on broken legs and an unbroken heart.
THE END
