The Unbreakable Widow

The last thing I remember is the cold, seeping into my bones as I froze to death in an abandoned barn.

But then, I heard weeping, and snapped my eyes open to find myself sitting on a hard wooden pew, at Andrew' s funeral.

My mother-in-law, Debra Chadwick, was there, sobbing about how they' d take care of me and Molly, just as she did twenty years ago.

The exact same false promise that had shackled me for two decades, turning me into their live-in nurse and servant until they threw me out to die.

The sheer audacity of it, of being brought back only to face the same manipulative lies, surged through me with a hot, sharp rage.

Not grief, not confusion, but pure, unadulterated fury.

This time, I wouldn't take her sedatives.

This time, I shoved her arm off me. This time, everything would be different.