"Maybe for a while."
He looked surprised.
She continued.
"Celeste has been good to me."
He nodded.
Then she added.
"But I've been thinking about starting something of my own."
Daniel leaned forward.
"What kind of business?"
Amara looked toward her mother's old notebook.
"Translation and document-review services for community organizations that can't afford huge international law firms."
Her brother smiled.
"That sounds like you."
She laughed softly.
"Maybe."
Then Daniel asked the question she'd been avoiding.
"What about the million dollars?"
Amara shook her head.
"He's never mentioned paying it."
Daniel looked outraged.
"After all that?"
She smiled.
"The million was never why I spoke."
He considered that.
Then shrugged.
"Still. A promise is a promise."
Amara laughed.
For the first time in weeks, she felt light enough to enjoy the joke.
She didn't know that Faisal had been discussing the same promise with Mariam.
And that the solution they were considering would test whether he had truly learned anything from the night he turned a waitress's language into entertainment.
The first formal proposal arrived just before Christmas.
Crescent Horizon remained interested in acquiring Meridian, but the revised structure treated Parcel Seven as an independently owned asset subject to the original trust arrangements.
The buyer no longer asked the community to pretend those arrangements had disappeared.
Instead, it proposed a new long-term operating agreement, clearly documented consent procedures, independently monitored maintenance commitments, and a funding arrangement tied to the terminal's continued use of the trust-owned property.
The proposed transaction still valued Meridian's business at approximately nine hundred million dollars.
But the package no longer suggested that every asset underlying the terminal belonged to Meridian.
The trust would retain title to Parcel Seven.
It would receive negotiated compensation for the operating rights it granted.
And future transactions materially affecting those rights would require the procedures established in the revised agreement.
The proposal also included employment-related commitments and support for essential infrastructure repairs, subject to negotiation and enforceable terms.
Amara read it carefully.
So did Evelyn.
So did the other trustees.
They didn't accept it immediately.
The first draft contained clauses that needed clarification, including limits on future development and the treatment of community payments during financial distress.
Marcus wanted stronger assurances concerning jobs.
Samuel wanted protection against a future buyer attempting to bypass the agreement again.
Amara wanted independent translation review whenever significant Arabic-language provisions were relied upon.
Mariam accepted that the documents needed more work.
The negotiations continued.
For the first time, however, neither side was pretending the community had no rights.