overwhelmed with household tasks and parenting, she simply told him, “Figure it out. I did.” Two days later, Tom showed up at the inn with Ethan and a bouquet of flowers. He looked worn and contrite. “I’m sorry. I disrespected your parents and took you for granted,” he said. Clara listened, then accepted the flowers — not as surrender, but as strength. She agreed to come home,
but only if her parents were welcome too. Back at the house, things felt different. Tom helped with dinner, her father read to Ethan, and her mother passed on her almond cookie recipe. The wound hadn’t vanished, but something had changed. Clara was no longer invisible. She had finally been heard — and it had taken leaving to be seen.