late husband didn’t just give me his name; he gave me their entire kingdom.
I slowly walked forward, my sensible black flats sinking into the wet earth. I ignored the scattered clothes. I ignored Eleanor’s venomous glare and Chloe’s camera. I knelt in a large, muddy puddle and gently picked up a heavy, leather-bound book that had fallen from the suitcase.
It was our wedding album.
The thick, glossy cover was smeared with dark brown mud, obscuring the bright, loving smile Terrence had worn as we danced our first dance. I pulled a tissue from my pocket and carefully, methodically wiped the mud away from his face, ignoring the rain plastering my hair to my forehead.
The pain in my chest didn’t break me. Instead, it hardened, freezing into a solid, unbreakable block of absolute, glacial ice.
I stood up, clutching the heavy album tightly to my chest like a
