Ashley realized, at the time, that she and the dead daughter would have been nearly the same age. The thought had unsettled her for some vague reason. It made every interaction feel faintly loaded, as if her very presence marked time moving forward when someone else’s life had stopped without warning.
From the beginning, Rowena kept an emotional distance that felt deliberate. She was polite and composed. Though she was never unkind, she wasn’t very warm either. She did not pry or overstep. She stayed just far enough away that Ashley never knew whether she was being respectful or quietly keeping her at arm’s length.