Her mother did not say anything.She stepped off the porch, crossed the three feet between them, and pulled Lena into her arms.That was all.No words. No questions.Just her mother’s embrace, the familiar scent of the lotion she had worn for as long as Lena could remember, the lingering warmth of the kitchen still clinging to her clothes, and the sound of Becca exhaling against her hair—a long, slow release of something that had been trapped inside her for ten days and had finally been allowed to leave.Lena stood there and let herself be held.Her mother’s hands moved from her shoulders to the back of her head, then briefly to her face, cupping it the way she used to when Lena was small and had fallen over and needed to be checked for damage.Confirming.Making sure.The hands of a woman who had spent ten days imagining every possible version of this moment and was now using her own touch to verify that none of the worst ones had come true.Behind her, in the doorway, her father sto
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