"Brother… how can you say that?"
Ophelia's voice broke, her tears spilling down her cheeks like pearls slipping from a broken string. She looked every bit as wounded as she sounded, fragile, wronged, and painfully sincere.
Anyone watching might have felt their heart soften at the sight, might have thought she was the one being pushed aside, quietly mistreated in favor of someone else.
Ashley, holding the card that had caused it all, felt that weight settle on her for a brief moment. Guilt stirred, but it didn't last.
Because when she looked at the situation more clearly, the feeling didn't sit right.
She was the one who had been lost, the one who had been absent from this family for years beyond her control. The one who should have been here all along. Whatever place she was being given now, it wasn't something stolen. It was something being returned.
And Ophelia…
