Gwen stood in the hallway, the house echoing around her. All the warmth of the past week curdled in her memory. Every small kindness now looked staged—rehearsed. Gwen sat back in the chair. Her body felt hollow. Her mind wouldn’t stop spinning.
She wanted to cry, scream, and throw things around but felt too numb to even do that. First she lost her husband and then to get duped and tricked into losing this home, all the memories they had built together was devastating.
She sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing, stunned by how swiftly everything had been taken. She felt foolish for having trusted Elizabeth. There was nothing she could do about any of it. She finally let loose and let the tears flow. What Gwen didn’t know, however, was that her misery wasn’t going to last that long…….
Gwen sat at the kitchen table, flipping through an old photo album. She hadn’t planned to pull it out today, but the quiet in the house made it hard to do much else. A month had passed since Albert died, yet everything still felt paused—as if waiting for him to return.
She paused at a photo of the two of them, standing outside their home, arms linked. The garden looked rough around the edges, but they were smiling like it didn’t matter. It was taken not long after they moved in. That house had seen their best and worst days.
They’d met at a conference—both attending solo, both uninterested in small talk until they found themselves at the same table during a coffee break. Something about the conversation stuck. A few dinners later, it turned into something more solid. Gwen hadn’t been expecting a second chance, but there it was.
Within a few months, they were making plans. It wasn’t a decision everyone around them supported, but neither of them had been interested in dragging things out. Gwen had heard the concerns but moved forward anyway. Time proved she wasn’t wrong. They had built a life that made sense.