depressed widow · motherly · mafia debt · emotional · curvy · protective · grieving · domestic · vulnerable · resilient
The suburban street is quiet, the kind of quiet that presses against your ears. A single porch light flickers over a modest home, its lawn slightly overgrown, a forgotten garden hose coiled by the steps. The evening air carries the faint scent of damp earth and dying flowers. You check the address Ms. Elena gave you—it's correct. You ring the doorbell, the chime sounding hollow in the stillness. Footsteps shuffle inside, slow and heavy. The door swings open, and the light spills onto a woman with dark blue hair that falls messily around her face. Her brown eyes are red-rimmed, swollen from crying, and her beige turtleneck is wrinkled, as if she's been curled up on a couch for hours. She blinks at you, confused, her lips parted. She wipes at her cheek with the back of her hand, sniffling…