All Chapters of FORSAKEN WIFE, NOW A BILLIONAIRE'S GREATEST REGRET: Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

Summer arrived with a confident warmth that baked the scent of pine and salt into the air. The Tidewater Trail was a tapestry of life: families with dripping ice creams, earnest birdwatchers with lenses longer than their arms, and the ever-present, low hum of contented bees. The "Bee & Bee" signs had become a local joke, but the hotels were at 85% occupancy, a fact Miranda reported with the gravity of a CEO announcing record profits.The repaired pier, now officially "Mosaic Pier" thanks to Clara's determined campaign and a stunning, scale-patterned tilework created by the middle school art class, was our new gathering spot. It felt symbolic—the old, rotting structure made new and beautiful, a blend of Lanc’s honest function and Clara’s belief in art.We were in the golden, stable heart of the year. Kai’s documentary was in final edits, a distant concern. The Vance grant had transformed Chloe’s program into a model, and she was now fielding calls from other coastal towns, a reluctant

The autumn after the Harvest Home festival was a long, gentle letting-go. The tourist vibrations faded from the boardwalks, leaving the Tidewater Trail to the rustle of fallen leaves and the solemn conferences of migrating geese. The Keepers, too, turned inward. Lanc and Ben Sorrel—now officially the land trust’s new project manager—were deep in blueprints for the affordable housing phase, their conversations a rapid-fire exchange of technical terms and grudging respect. Miranda’s bee hotels were being winterized, a process she supervised with the gravity of a general battening down hatches.The documentary’s quiet ripple had brought a new kind of pilgrim: not journalists, but a handful of people holding their own fragile blueprints for community, asking not for an interview, but for advice. Lena, our de facto archivist, had taken to meeting them for coffee, sharing hard-won, humble wisdom.One such pilgrim, a woman named Rosa from a struggling mill town up the coast, was with us at t

The thaw was a slow, muddy promise. Drips from the eaves replaced the silence of frost, and the Tidewater Trail’s boardwalks shed their icy skins. The world seemed to be taking a deep, sodden breath before the explosion of spring. We, the Keepers, were in a state of anticipatory pause. Lena’s council campaign posters—simple, with a picture of her holding a birdhouse and the slogan “Building Nest Eggs, Not Eggshells”—were stacked in her garage. My book manuscript was a growing, unruly pile of pages on the dining table. Ben and Lanc’s housing site was a field of carefully marked flags and optimism.We were, as Arthur put it, “between drafts.”It was during this suspended animation that the email arrived. From Kai. The subject line: “It’s live.”Attached was a link. The final, official release of “The Keepers: A Chronicle of Repair” on the documentary platform. There was no fanfare, no premiere. It just… entered the world.We decided to watch it separately, in our own homes, wanting to e

High summer arrived, a dense, fragrant blanket of heat and light. The Tidewater Trail was a slow-moving river of shorts and sunhats, the air thick with the scent of coconut sunscreen and blooming blackberry brambles. The Keepers, in our unofficial semi-retirement, had taken to holding our Friday sessions on Mosaic Pier in the evenings, where the breeze offered some mercy.We were in the business of enjoyment now, more than management. Miranda’s "Pollinator's Progress" was the talk of the town, and she’d started leading wildly popular "Bee Safaris" for kids. Lanc and Ben’s housing project had foundation walls rising from the earth, a sight that gave Lanc a deep, quiet satisfaction every time he looked at it. My wildflower watercolors had become a surprise hit at the local gift shop, sold as notecards. I’d opened a separate bank account for the proceeds, earmarked for the Grange Hall fund. Arthur had taken up sailing with Hank in his old skiff, returning sunburned and smelling of salt a

The first true winter storm arrived with a roar, hurling rain against the windows and turning the Tidewater Trail into a wind-lashed no-man's land. Inside, the world felt small, safe, and deeply ours. A fire crackled in the hearth, Hank's painting glowed in its light, and Eleanor's paperweight sat solidly on the desk, holding down the first batch of congratulatory cards for my book.The publication of "Notes from the Hearth" had been a quiet event. There was no tour, just a well-attended reading at the Grange Hall (now safely roofed), where I signed copies for neighbors and a few tearful out-of-towners who saw their own homes in my words. It felt like a community potluck, not a literary launch.We were in the deep, quiet heart of the year, and of our lives. The Keepers, as a formal entity, had dissolved. We were just friends now, bound by history and habit, but the urgent, shared mission had been accomplished, its components distributed and thriving.Our Friday gatherings were sporadi