“Yes?”
“I got the job.”
Her mother was silent.
Then Nia heard her crying.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Her mother laughed through her tears.
“I’m just remembering the little girl who used to sit at the kitchen table doing homework while I worked.”
Nia looked at Micah, who was sleeping beside her.
“She made it.”
Her mother smiled.
“She did.”
Five years later, Nia returned to Westbridge University.
This time, she wasn’t wearing a graduation gown.
She was wearing a tailored navy suit.
Micah, now five years old, walked beside her holding her hand.
Nia had become a senior financial analyst.
She had purchased a modest home.
She had built an emergency savings fund.
She had paid off her remaining student debt.
And she had become a mentor to student parents.
That afternoon, she stood at the same podium where Dr. Reed had once defended her.
Hundreds of students watched.
