Fiona
I drove straight to my mother's after dinner with Archie, my hands still trembling slightly on the wheel, the weight of the evening pressing harder against my chest with every mile. She was sitting up in bed reading when I let myself into her room, and the moment she saw my face, she set the book aside without a word, opening her arms the way she used to when I was small enough to still crawl into her lap and cry about things that felt enormous at the time.
I sat on the edge of her bed instead now, too old for that kind of comfort, but the need behind it hadn't changed much at all.
"What happened?" she asked gently.
"I had dinner with Archie tonight," I said, my voice already unsteady. "He noticed the necklace. The one he gave Thea. He asked where I got it, and I told him it was
