Chapter 12 - Learning to Come Home
Months passed.
The mansion changed.
Security remained, but fear slowly faded.
Clara stopped checking windows every night.
Noah stopped asking whether she would disappear.
Ethan learned not to panic when Clara went somewhere alone.
They were healing imperfectly.
One evening, Noah found their old wedding album.
“Why aren't you wearing this dress anymore?”
Clara laughed.
“Because people don't wear wedding dresses every day.”
“Why not?”
Ethan whispered, “Excellent question.”
Clara elbowed him.
Noah flipped through photographs.
“Are you married?”
Ethan and Clara looked at each other.
Legally, the situation was complicated.
Emotionally, even more so.
“We were,” Clara said.
“Are you still?”
Neither knew how to answer.
Noah frowned.
“You should be.”
Then he returned to his cereal.
Ethan smiled.
“Strong argument.”
Clara laughed.
But that night she retrieved her wedding ring.
She didn't put it on.
May you like
She simply held it.
And for the first time, she imagined that someday she might.
