Gwen nodded. She’d driven past it a hundred times.
Elizabeth hesitated, then met Gwen’s eyes, her own uncharacteristically vulnerable. “Would it be alright if I stayed at your house for a few days? Just until the funeral. I’ll sleep in the guest room. I won’t get in your way.”
Gwen’s first instinct was to say no. The house was her refuge, the last place that felt like Albert. His 书房 still had his reading glasses on the desk, his favorite sweater draped over the chair. The guest room was where he’d stayed when he had the flu, where he’d hidden her birthday presents. Letting Elizabeth in felt like letting a stranger handle a precious artifact. But Elizabeth’s voice wasn’t pushy, wasn’t manipulative—just honest. And the funeral was in four days. Refusing would make Gwen look cruel, even if she felt it.
The house was large, anyway. Two bedrooms, a study, a sunroom. They could exist without crossing paths. “Alright,” Gwen said, her voice quieter than she meant it to be. “You can stay a few days. I wouldn’t want you to miss the service.”
Elizabeth smiled—genuinely smiled, not the tight, polite one she usually gave—and relief washed over her face. “Thank you. I mean it.”
That night, Gwen prepared the guest room. She stripped the bed of its old sheets and replaced them with fresh ones, crisp and white, the way Albert liked. She laid out a towel on the dresser, folded into thirds, and set a glass of water on the nightstand. As she worked, she kept glancing at the door to Albert’s study, half-expecting him to walk in and say, “You’re being too nice, honey.” But he didn’t. The house was quiet, and Gwen felt adrift, unsure how to process this sudden civility with the stepdaughter who’d hated her for half her life.
The next morning, Gwen woke to the smell of tea. She shuffled into the kitchen, her hair still messy from sleep, and stopped short. Elizabeth was sitting at the kitchen table, a mug in her hand, and she was using Albert’s favorite bone china cup—the one with blue forget-me-nots, the one he’d brought back from their trip to England. Gwen’s chest ached.