Amara's laugh was light, genuine, a little disbelieving even now. "Amazing," she said simply. "I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Grateful for every person who believed in me before there was any proof I deserved it, and my husband."
The interview wound down not long after that, the crew moving efficiently through a handful of final photographs.
Amara alone against the flame tree, Amara with the pond glittering behind her, and finally, at Adaeze's gentle insistence, one shot with Julian and the twins called out from inside to join her, Justina propped happily on her mother's hip and Josh clinging to his father's leg, the four of them squinting good-naturedly into the late morning sun.
By the time the crew packed up their equipment and the cars pulled away down the long gravel drive, the garden had gone quiet again, filled only with birdsong and the soft splash of the pond, as though the entire morning had been nothing more than a beautifully staged dream.
