A smile spread across her face.
Not the polite smile she had worn when people laughed.
A real smile.
The kind I hadn’t seen in far too long.
I raised my phone with trembling hands and took a photograph.
My daughter stood on the graduation stage in her blue cap and gown.
Beside her was her twin brother, smiling as if he had finally arrived exactly where he was supposed to be.
I took another picture.
Then another.
I knew I would never get the photograph I had imagined when they were children. I would never see two real twins standing together in matching gowns, arguing over whose diploma was handed over first.
But I had this moment.
And for the first time in two years, it felt like enough.
After the ceremony, the gym became a sea of families taking photographs and congratulating graduates.
Emma stood near the entrance with Felix beside her.
