Chapter 10 - The Wealth of the Heart
A year has passed since that day on the beach.
We still live in the house in Maine.
I sold my shares in Sterling Enterprises.
I heard Marcus Thorne ran the company into the ground in six months.
I didn't care.
I spend my mornings teaching Leo how to sail.
He talks now.
He doesn't talk a lot,
and his sentences are short,
but every word is a miracle.
He tells me about the colors of the fish.
He tells me when the wind feels 'spiky'.
Savannah is no longer our maid.
She is the director of the Toby Reeves Center,
a school we built nearby for non-verbal children.
It doesn't look like a clinic.
It looks like a home.
It’s a place where children can be silent until they're ready to speak.
And it’s a place where parents learn to listen.
Tonight,
we are sitting on the porch.
Leo is folding a napkin into a swan.
He’s getting very good at it.
Savannah is sitting in the rocking chair next to me,
her hand resting on mine.
"You're thinking about the Atoria,"
she says,
reading my mind.
"No,"
I say,
looking at the stars.
"I'm thinking about that rabbit."
"The one that cost fourteen dollars and fifty cents an hour."
"It was the best investment I ever made."
Leo looks up and smiles at us.
It’s a wide,
confident smile.
The smile of a boy who knows he is heard.
The world is still noisy.
The world is still full of people chasing shadows.
But here,
on this cliff,
we have everything we need.
I used to think power was about making people do what you want.
I know now that true power is about being who someone else needs you to be.
I am no longer David Sterling,
the billionaire.
I am David,
the man who can make a towel rabbit.
And that is more than enough.
The sun dips below the horizon,
and the first stars appear.
Leo stands up and walks to the railing.
"Look,"
he says,
pointing to the sky.
"The stars are whispering."
I stand up and join him.
"What are they saying,
Leo?"
He leans against me,
his head on my shoulder.
"They're saying...
it's a good night."
And for the first time in my life,
May you like
I know exactly what he means.
The End.
