The porch light was already on when she pulled into the driveway.
Grandma Nina opened the door before Sofia even knocked.
She looked smaller than Sofia remembered, and more fragile.
Her eyes brimmed with uncertainty.
“I’m not here to yell,” Sofia said quickly. “I just… You have to tell me everything.”
Grandma Nina stepped back to let her in.
Her hands trembled slightly as she gestured toward the living room.
Sofia followed her, taking a seat on the edge of the same couch where she had spent childhood summers watching late-night television and eating ice cream sandwiches.
For a long time, her grandmother just stared at the photo in her lap — the same one she had shown Ethan on the day of the wedding.
“I haven’t said his name in fifty years,” she said quietly.
Sofia watched her grandmother’s face shift — her jaw tightening, her eyes going far away.
It was like watching someone unlock a sealed room in their memory.
“I was 19. I thought I was in love.”
“He was handsome, confident, and said all the right things. He kissed my forehead for the cameras and called me his ‘whole world.'”
“Victor told me I was his queen. I believed him.”
“I married him at a courthouse in a borrowed dress. I thought we’d build something together.”
She paused, fingers tracing the edge of the photo.
“But on the night of our wedding, I heard him on the phone.”
“He said, ‘Don’t worry. Her grandfather signs the papers. The house goes under my name. Then we’re set.'”
Sofia’s breath caught.
It felt like déjà vu.
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