“Aunt Anna… We weren’t expecting you until next week.”
In an instant, my heart started to hammer inside my chest, like the timpani in Beethoven’s Sixth symphony. I instantly started to pray, instantly started to hope that I had heard correctly, and that it was someone else at the door, that Karen had just confused the names of the little bit of family members that I had, as she usually did. But even as I sat there praying for that, I knew that Karen hadn’t made a mistake—she had never mistaken Anna for anyone else or mistaken anyone else for Anna. It was definitely her. No matter how much I didn’t want it to be.
“I thought that it would be good for me to come through sooner—I haven’t seen any of you in ages.”
As if my worst nightmare had just come true, my suspicions
