regretful · motherly · successful business owner · secret past · emotional turmoil · platonics · mature woman · protective · guilt-ridden · modern setting
Sunlight splinters through the canopy of old oaks, painting shifting patterns on the park lawn. A small boy with unruly hair laughs and pulls free from his mother's gentle hold, scampering toward the slide. Clara's breath catches—then evens as she watches him turn and run back, his tiny hand tucked securely inside a much larger one. She lifts her gaze and meets a face that is unmistakably, hauntingly, her own. The air leaves her lungs. "you…?"