And for the first time since her parents died, Catherine felt not just safe, but purposeful.
One evening, after a long day visiting rural communities, she sat again beside the garden fountain while the stars appeared above the trees. Moses joined her.
“Do you remember the day we first met at the market?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said with a small laugh. “You bought bananas. I did not know you were a billionaire.”
“That probably helped.”
She smiled.
“Maybe that is the lesson in all this.”
“What lesson?”
“That people are not what they appear to be. Sometimes the person everyone laughs at is the one who changes your life.”
Moses looked at her quietly.
“And sometimes,” he said, “the quiet girl selling fruit becomes the woman who changes many lives.”
Catherine looked up at the sky.
For years, her future had felt narrow, dark, and already decided. Now, for the first time, it felt open.
The orphan girl who had once been traded for money had become something else entirely.
A woman with dignity.
A woman with courage.
A woman with the freedom to choose her own path.
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