cool fabric one last time, a silent goodbye to the daughter I had lost and the future that had been stolen from us. I told myself it was for the best, that someone else could find joy in the beauty of the pearls. I never imagined the dress would ever cross my threshold again.
Time has a way of dullening the sharpest edges of pain, though the ache never truly disappears. I built a life in the quiet spaces Teresa left behind, finding a fragile peace in the routine of
