A smile soon spreads across my face as I excitedly rush downstairs to where I'd heard his voice, finding both of my parents standing in our spacious kitchen. I run forward and pull them both into a hug.
I throw my arms around them, holding on as tightly as I can. And then, like a dam breaking, the floodgates open. A sob wracks through me, followed by another, and another.
Tears spill freely. They're tears of longing, of grief, of love, of confusion and pain; a storm of emotions, too tangled to name, pouring out of me all at once.
"Oh, Ella, honey! What's wrong?" my mum asks, studying my face with sympathetic concern as tears continue to pour. I don't know why I am crying, in all honesty. I don't feel sad at all, but perhaps the events of the past three months have been even more of an e
