Chapter 1 - The Bouquet on the Porch
I Adopted My Best Friend's Four Daughters as Her Final Wish – A Decade On, a Bouquet Landed on My Porch Carrying Words She Wrote Before She Died
The whole backyard smelled like charcoal and sweet corn. Down by the picnic table, Claire was laughing at something one of her sisters had said, her head tipped back the way it always caught me off guard.
She'd turned eighteen that morning.
"Mom, you're cremating the burgers again," she called across the grass.
"I'm not cremating anything. I'm giving them character."
She rolled her eyes at me — the same look Nora used to give me, a whole lifetime ago.
Then a knock at the front door.
A kid in a delivery uniform stood on the step, holding a bouquet of white lilies wrapped in brown paper. I figured they were a birthday gift for Claire from one of her friends, until I noticed the small envelope tucked between the stems.
My name was on it. Just my name, in blue ink.
I carried the flowers inside and set them on the kitchen counter. Through the window I could still hear the girls out back, teasing each other, oblivious.
May you like
My hands started shaking before I even opened the envelope.
I hadn't seen that handwriting in ten years.
