Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 118

Her Obsession.

What We’re About To Build.

Sage

I stand on the old podium he used to command from, my boots dug into the wood that used to hold his shoes. The place smells like smoke and wet earth, and something new the sharp, electric smell of people deciding. I tuck the canvas bundle under my arm like it’s a strange, heavy prize. It’s not pretty, but it’s proof, and right now, proof is everything. People trickle in from every direction, hesitant, like they’re testing whether the world will bite them if they reach out. Ari joins me, steady and solid at my side, and then the younger ones come next. Their faces pale, eyes huge. The kids are the worst off; they move like they’ve been taught to expect the worst. Winnie slips away from the crowd without a second thought and kneels beside the nearest cluster, hands gentle and sure as she offers blankets and soft words. She has that way with the small ones, the way they uncoil around her as if she’s the first soft thing they’ve touched in years.

When the crowd’s gathered, a ragged ring of the saved, the stunned and the suspicious. I clear my throat and let my voice find the space.

“Yakov is dead,” I say, plain and flat, so there’s no room for anyone to doubt it. “Your days of captivity are over, and your lives are now

yours.”

Murmurs sweep across the yard like the wind. Faces shift. Some people laugh, short and wild. Some cry. One woman sinks to her knees and prays. A boy I don’t recognise lifts a hand to his mouth and breathes out like he hasn’t been able to for years.

An older kid steps forward, the kind of kid who’s been trying to be brave for too long. He squints up at me and asks, voice small and brittle, “Does that mean we can go home now? To our parents?”

I feel something in my chest, a crack, and then it’s oiled. I step down from the podium so I’m closer to him, and to everyone else. “This means you can go wherever you like,” I say, meeting his eyes. “If you need help getting back to your family or finding them, we will help.”

I glance at Conner beside me; his presence is a quiet rock. He nods when I look at him, that solid agreement in his jaw. I continue, my voice steady now, because this is a promise we’re going to keep.

“For everyone else,” I say, letting the words land, “Conner O’Neill is offering you a choice: to join his family. It’s not a criminal throne or a chain; it’s a roof, work, protection, and a place where you can choose what to be. You can retain the skills you’ve learned and use them with purpose, with consent, with people who genuinely care for you. Or you can walk away. The gates are open. You’re free.”

The crowd reacts in a dozen ways. Some step forward, cautious and hopeful. Others turn, uncertain, weighing a life they’ve never known against the one they’ve been forced to inhabit. Naomi laughs somewhere in the back, sharp and fierce, and a couple of men drop into conversation about what work they could do, as if they were testing future ideas. Winnie comes back to my side, wiping the corner of a small boy’s eye with the back of her hand. She whispers something to him, maybe a joke, or a promise, and he wraps his arms around her, surprised and immediate. I watch that and feel something warm and dangerous bloom in my chest: not victory exactly, but the first step

toward one.

Conner steps forward then, voice low and steady. “We’ll take care of those who want to stay. We don’t make choices for people. You earn your place. You build it with us. And if you leave, we’ll help you get where you need to go.”

There’s a hush after that, like air settling. People begin to move, some toward the compound, some toward the road, some toward each other. The noise that grows is not a single sound but the many small, messy sounds of life starting again: questions, plans, a child asking for food, a woman laughing too loud because she can. I look at Conner and the boys, at Ari and Naomi and Winnie, at Nico, who’s standing a little way off, palms still bruised from chains. He gives me a tiny nod, one that says he understands both the cost and the beginning. We’re not perfect. We don’t know how to teach “normal“, and we certainly don’t get to decide what that looks like for anyone else. But we have room, and food, and people who will try. We have a choice to offer, and for a lot of them, that’s enough. I tuck the canvas closer, feeling the weight of the thing under my arm and the weight of the night sliding off my shoulders. The podium is quiet now, but the yard is full of movement, small, fumbled, hopeful steps. I let them go.

Conner slides a little closer until his arm brushes mine, his voice dropping low enough that it’s just for me.

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12:30 Wed, Oct 22

What We’re About To Build.

“Are you ready to go home now?”

1 huff a quiet laugh, still watching the crowd break apart into groups, the first hints of laughter threading through the air. “Do we even have a home?”

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That earns me one of his smirks, the kind that’s both tired and proud. “Pa’s had crews working on the house,” he says. “It’s stable enough. We can set up tents in the yard for anyone who wants to join us, just for now. And while they’re there, I’ll ask the crews to throw up a few cabins out back. Something like Ma and Pa’s place, spread out, private and safe.”

The idea catches me off guard for a second, the image of all of them camped under the same stars, free. I tilt my head toward him, my lips twitching. “Does that mean I get a food hall too?”

He chuckles, the sound deep and warm, brushing against the edges of my exhaustion. “Do you want a food hall, sweetheart?”

I raise a brow, pretending to think about it. “Well, I definitely don’t want a million ghosts in my kitchen.”

He laughs again, soft and unguarded this time, and leans in to press a kiss against my temple. “Then a food hall it is,” he murmurs. “You, me, and every damn ghost that decides they’re family.”

I smile despite myself, leaning into him as the compound hums with new life around us. For the first time, home doesn’t sound like a place we lost, it sounds like something we’re about to build.

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