It was a number she didn’t recognize, but the voice on the other end froze her blood.

“Emily,” her brother Daniel said, his tone brittle. “You need to come home. Mom’s not doing well.”

For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. The house that had rejected her was calling her back — not out of forgiveness, but desperation. Emily looked at her daughter, now fourteen herself, with the same green eyes she once saw in the mirror.

“I don’t know if I can face them,” Emily whispered.