Chapter 40: Still Ours
The Jefferson Tree stood on the northern edge of the compound—a gnarled black gum with roots like a tangle of old veins, bark peeled back in places like ancient scrollwork. It had weathered wars, storms, and the paving of the land around it, and yet it still stood. Crooked. Defiant. Alive.
Abigail ...
Chapters
1. Chapter 1: The Arrival
2. Chapter 2: Behind Closed Doors
3. Chapter 3: Shadows of Discipline
4. Chapter 4: The Invisible Cage
5. Chapter 5: Fallout Protocol
6. Chapter 6: Between the Lines
7. Chapter 7: The Unseen Eye
8. Chapter 8: Breaking Point
9. Chapter 9: The Flashpoint
10. Chapter 10: The Eye of the Storm
11. Chapter 11: Ghost Protocols
12. Chapter 12: The Compass Rises
13. Chapter 13: Geneva Echoes
14. Chapter 14: Fractured Trust
15. Chapter 15: Smoke and Scars
16. Chapter 16: Daughter of the Republic
17. Chapter 17: The Safehouse Siege
18. Chapter 18: Fires of the Founders
19. Chapter 19: Letters Never Sent
20. Chapter 20: A Father’s Reckoning
21. Chapter 21: The Fall of the Badge
22. Chapter 22: Broken Chains
23. Chapter 23: False Calm
24. Chapter 24: The Hunted and the Herald
25. Chapter 25: Last Gasp of the Old Guard
26. Chapter 26: The Glass Room
27. Chapter 27: Love in the Fireline
28. Chapter 28: Operation Reflection
29. Chapter 29: The Monroe Doctrine Rewritten
30. Chapter 30: Crossfire
31. Chapter 31: When Truth Bleeds
32. Chapter 32: Exile or Exposure
33. Chapter 33: The First Step
34. Chapter 34: A Daughter’s Blueprints
35. Chapter 35: The Wedding Without Cameras
36. Chapter 36: Winds of Change
37. Chapter 37: Declassification
38. Chapter 38: Mariana’s Memoirs
39. Chapter 39: The First Building
40. Chapter 40: Still Ours
41. Chapter 41: Abigail’s architectural institute launches
42. Chapter 42: Nathaniel teaches a course on integrity in service
43. Chapter 43: Elizabeth visits for a holiday—tense, but healing
44. Chapter 44: Their first child is born.
45. Chapter 45: They visit Geneva, walking where it all began
46. Chapter 46: Mariana wins a Pulitzer
47. Chapter 47: Nathaniel receives an anonymous threat. They confront it calmly
48. Chapter 48: Abigail gives a TED Talk that becomes a cultural moment
49. Chapter 49: The Jefferson tree is declared a protected monument
50. Chapter 50: Abigail and Nathaniel, now older, sit in a garden. Their child runs in the distance. Abigail sketches a new building—not for resistance, but for hope
51. Epilogue: Roots Remember
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