The threshold of Diane’s apartment had always been a sanctuary, a fragile barrier between the jagged cruelty of Manhattan’s corporate monoliths and the soft, breathing room of her soul.
But as Catherine stepped inside that evening, the air felt different—thick with the scent of lavender and a lingering, unspoken tension that made the hair on her arms stand up.
“Oh, you’re awake already?” Catherine asked.
Diane didn't answer with words. She moved across the room with a frantic grace,she wrapped her arms around her mother. It was an intimate, desperate hug, the kind shared by two people who had spent years treading water in a stormy sea.
“Mum, I thought something happened,” Diane whispered into her mother’s shoulder, her breath coming in shallow, jagged gasps.
“Where have you been? I h
