Ash's POV
Nan was in the kitchen when I came out.
The house still had that particular quiet that sat between two people who had said too much and hadn't yet figured out how to come back from it, heavy and careful, and I stood in the doorway for a moment just looking at her back, at the stiffness in her shoulders, and I made myself speak.
"Nan."
She didn't turn around immediately.
"I'm going back to Valemount," I said, "but before I do, I need to say something."
She turned then, wiping her hands on a cloth, her face composed and unreadable the way it always was when she was protecting something underneath.
"I shouldn't have said that," I said quietly, "what I said about my mother, I shouldn't have. It was cruel and I knew it was cruel when I said it and I said it anyway, and I'm sor
