The steady drizzle outside created a rhythm against the window, a slow, haunting melody that mirrored the unease curling inside my stomach. The air inside felt thick, charged with something I couldn’t quite place.

Today was the day I had dreaded and longed for in equal measure. My adoptive mother said that she was coming. It had been years since I had last seen her - years of silence, of longing, of unspoken words rotting away in the space between us. I should have been prepared, but my heart pounded in my chest as the heavy iron gates creaked open in the distance.