The days seemed to blur together for Emma as the countdown to her mother’s return grew shorter. She found herself caught in a whirlwind of emotions—hope, apprehension, fear—none of which seemed to quiet the rising tide of anxiety in her chest. Her conversations with Alexander were her only refuge, and even then, she found herself hesitating, unsure of how to navigate the complexity of her feelings. It wasn’t just the reunion with her mother that weighed on her; it was everything. The unresolved tension with her father, the lingering hurt of years lost, and the overwhelming sense that she was on the verge of something big, something life-changing.
The apartment had begun to feel smaller, more confined, as if the walls were closing in on her. She had tried to immerse herself in work and rou
