The doorbell rang at 2:15 on a Tuesday afternoon, and I almost let it ring itself out. Standing up meant leaving the one warm spot I’d made on the couch—two blankets tucked tight, three sweaters layered like armor, my feet shoved into thick socks that used to be “too hot.” These days, nothing was too hot.
It rang again, louder, like the person on the porch didn’t believe in patience. And then it rang a third time in a rhythm I knew as well as my own heartbeat—two quick presses, a short pause, and one more.
That was Sarah.
I pulled myself upright slowly, the way you do when you’re not sure your legs will agree with you.
The living room was dim because I’d stopped turning on lights unless I had to. The winter sun outside my windows was bright, but I kept the curtains mostly closed to hold whatever heat I could. My house in Naperville, Illinois—my house, the one Tom and I bought when our hair was still dark—had never felt this small, this cold, or this quiet.
By the time I reached the front door, my breath had turned shallow from the effort.
I opened it, and there she was on the porch with grocery bags in both hands, her cheeks pink from the wind, her hair pulled back like she’d done it fast in the car.
She took one look at me and stopped moving.
Her face shifted in a way I recognized—first surprise, then a sudden stillness, like a storm cloud sliding in front of the sun.
“Mom,” she said.
It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even quite an accusation yet. It was my name, heavy with everything she was seeing and everything she hadn’t asked.
I stepped aside and tried to smile like a mother welcoming her daughter in, as if this was a normal visit.
As if I hadn’t been counting crackers the night before.
Sarah walked past me into the living room and glanced at the thermostat without even meaning to. The red numbers glowed like a warning.
Fifty-eight.
She stared at it for a second too long, then turned to look at me again. Her jaw tightened, and for a split second I saw her father in her face—the way Tom used to look when he was trying not to say something that would change the room forever.
“Why is it freezing in here?” she asked.
“It’s forty degrees outside, Mom. You could get sick.”
I had an answer ready. I’d practiced it, actually.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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