you really alive?”

Part 2

For several seconds, I could not answer.

Outside my window, rain tapped softly against the glass.

Inside, my chest felt as if someone had reopened an old wound with careful hands.

“Lily,” I said carefully, “who told you I died?”

“Mom did,” she whispered. “She said after Grandma passed, you got sick, then you were gone.”

I shut my continue reading …