"We're home," Amara announced, as if naming could complete the legal work of yesterday.
Nia looked at Marcus over their daughter's head. "We're trying," she corrected gently.
Amara accepted the edit. Children often did, when the adults were careful with tone. "We're trying home," she said, and that, Nia thought, was the most accurate sentence anyone had offered since she walked through the door with her suitcase and her triumph.
The first week in Oak Hollow was a study in disorientation. Nia started remote onboarding for the director role from a laptop perched on a box of cookbooks. Marcus ran out for milk and came back with milk and a plant and a look of apology for spending twelve dollars. Amara taped paper flowers to her bedroom wall and declared them temporary yellow. Neighbors introduced themselves with casseroles and curiosity. An older man next door asked what Marcus did and Marcus said, "Looking," with a steadiness that made Nia's chest ache with something like respect.
On the seventh day, a letter arrived forwarded from the old address—final payoff confirmation, short sale complete, deficiency waived. Marcus opened it at the kitchen counter and had to sit down. Nia read over his shoulder. The bank's language was bloodless. The effect was not. They had exited cleanly enough to begin. The beginning still looked like a mess.
That night they attended their first session with a couples therapist Simone had not recommended and Denise had—an older Black woman in Pasadena named Dr. Ruth Coles who specialized in marriages strained by money and silence. Dr. Coles listened to the story without gasping. She took notes. She said, "Protection is often fear's favorite costume," and Marcus flinched as if caught. She asked Nia, "What do you need from him this week that is concrete?" and Nia said, "I need him to show me the job applications he's sending and the ones he isn't. I need the hidden spreadsheet to become our spreadsheet." Dr. Coles nodded and assigned it like homework. They left with tissues in their pockets and a next appointment on the calendar.