recommend playing 'Hold On' by Chord Overstreet at this part, makes me cry every time 🥺
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some time in the future
UNDERNEATH A CAST OF GREY CLOUDS, ROMAN GODFREY WALKED ALONG THE LAKE JUST BEHIND HIS HOUSE, CAREFULLY WATCHING THE SMALL CHILD SKIPPING CLOSE TO THE SHORELINE.
"Solara! Be careful! If you get your dress wet, I'll never hear the end of it," Roman said to his almost six year old daughter. It was an important day. He knew she was a little nervous since she was finally old enough to understand what was going on. He sighed and tucked his hands into his suit's pockets.
"Daddy, I want to visit her again," she decided just then, because Solara was a determined, stubborn girl, just like her mother.
Even though Roman had taken her out to the lake because she had wanted to get away from all the people inside, he wasn't the least bit surprised she had grown bored and wanted a new "adventure" as she called them, any new change of scene was exciting to Solara Rae Godfrey.
Roman couldn't deny her and never would. "Just a moment, okay? We'll be late and I'll be the one who gets shit for it." He shook his head, but chuckled lightly as he held his arms out for him to pick her up.
"Exactly, daddy, so hurry up!"
Once his daughter's arms were securely wrapped around his neck, Roman sped over to the pomegranate tree in their courtyard garden that had been planted as a sapling just five years ago.
The tree was far from harvest-ready, the top having just reached his own height, but his daughter liked the tree very much—it was her favorite spot to sit under and color in her coloring books, or listen to her dad tell her stories, both real and fictional.
He stared at the engraved marble plaque in front of the base of the tree, clutching his daughter's hand tightly. Roman didn't know why she wanted to see the tree now, especially considering what the day was.
Five years...it was still hard for Roman to believe she was really gone from his life. Sometimes he would wake up from nightmares and think she had returned, only to remember the truth. The pomegranate tree was an odd choice, but it felt right to have some way to memorialize her. She would have been amused by the symbolism.
"Did she look like me?" Solara wondered, staring so hard at the sign, her eyebrows knitted together like a long, curious caterpillar. (She couldn't read yet, but she had made her daddy read every word to her enough times to know what it signified). "Auntie Shelley says no, but Uncle Norman says I remind him of her."
