As she grew older, she started asking more questions.
She wanted to know what her father was like. She wanted to know about the trips he took with her brothers. She wanted to understand the people she lost before she was old enough to fully know them.
Her mother answered when she could, but some memories were difficult to open. Some stories felt like doors she had spent years keeping closed because walking through them hurt too much.
Then one night, everything changed.
Lucy woke her mother after midnight.
The mother immediately sat up, expecting a nightmare or some childhood fear.
Instead, she saw something different in her daughter’s expression. Lucy looked frightened, but not because of a dream. She looked like she had discovered something she did not know how to carry alone.
The girl held her old teddy bear close.
It was a toy she had kept from childhood, something familiar that had stayed with her through the years. But now there was a tear along the seam, and something hidden inside had been revealed.
A folded note.
At first, her mother did not understand.
