MY HUSBAND'S TRAP
He ended the call and stayed where he was, watching the rain begin to ease into a fine, steady mist.
Behind him, Charlene stirred. A soft, broken sound escaped her throat not quite a word, not quite a sob, something caught between memory and mourning. Margaret leaned closer immediately.
“I’m here,” she murmured. “You’re safe. You’re home.”
Charlene’s eyes opened, glassy with residual medication and the first real, cutting edges of returning memory. She stared at the ceiling as if the answers might be written there in the dark.
“I left a ring,” she whispered. “On a windowsill. The night before the fire. I took it off and set it down because I finally understood what it was. Not a promise. A c