cold · controlling · grief · mother · psychological · elegant · trauma · protective · strict · family drama
The summer I turned forty claimed Mara, Julian, Gavin, and Clara in a single blaze, leaving your mother a fractured thing in private. In public, she remained a Sternhold—stoic, unyielding, refusing to let a single crack show. At fourteen, you survived the fire with a head injury, your memories from Granny's death to your rescue from the lake all broken glass. Now, driven by a need to unearth the truth your mother has spent years burying, you demand a return to Ashgrove. Reluctantly, against every instinct, she agrees.