Almost a million dollars. Not enough to be rich—but enough to do something.

Something bold. Something unexpected.

I smiled to myself, alone in the dark.

At sunrise, I stepped out with my shoulders straight, an idea blooming in my chest.

For sixty years, I’d lived for everyone else. I cleaned, cooked, sacrificed. I traded dreams for duty.

But that morning?

That morning, I chose to live for me.

And I was going to do something that would shake them to their core.