“Jenna. I’ve been making excuses for her my whole life.
Smoothing things over. Fixing what she breaks.” She placed a neatly folded towel on the pile. “It’s exhausting.”
“You don’t have to do it anymore.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder, soft but sure.
“Thank you.”
The air felt lighter.
Maybe for the first time in a long time, she could finally breathe. And so could I.
Emily, who had taken to reading the letters with me. She picked up a bright yellow envelope and grinned. “This one’s from California, Mom. A single dad…
in my contact list. You are a sunk cost, Elena. He’d said it two years earlier during yet another lecture about my “small thinking.” It had landed…
into bed. I knew this moment would come, and now that it was here, I didn’t know what to say. I sighed, stroking his hair gently. “Dad…
circular drive curved around a fountain that had never once been turned off, not even during the drought years. Manicured hedges lined the path, trimmed into obedient…
