Della’s grief is a palpable presence, one she holds onto with both hands. Sometimes we curate our own hauntings, desperately crafting ghosts from faded memories as we beg our dear ones not to depart. As if our desperation alone could pull them back from the veil.
I shake my head. “I mean every word. I don’t love you, Baylor,” I announce, giving life to a truth that’s been trapped on my tongue for a year. “I never truly did.”