Sophia arrived home from college on a Friday evening in early spring, her suitcase wheels rumbling across the marble foyer like distant thunder. She was twenty now, taller than Elena remembered, with the same dark curls and hazel eyes that had once made men stare at her mother. College had softened her edges, given her confidence, but nothing could prepare her for what waited upstairs.
Elena met her at the foot of the grand staircase, arms open for a hug that felt too tight, too desperate. Sophia laughed and hugged back, oblivious to the tremor in her mother's embrace.












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