After My Parents Died, My Aunt Took My Inheritance and Gave Me a Mattress on the Floor – Years Later, She Knocked on My Door

There it was. I looked at her shaking hands. At her tired eyes.

A part of me wanted to shut the door.

Another part remembered ten-year-old me, standing in someone else’s house, afraid to take up space.

“How long?” I asked.

Her face changed instantly.

“Just for a bit. Until I get back on my feet.”

“Of course not,” she said too fast.

“I’m not a burden.”

I stepped aside. “Temporary. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“I knew you were a good man,” Linda said as she walked in.

She set her purse down like she’d always belonged there.

And as I closed the door behind her, a quiet thought settled in my chest. I had worked my whole life to build this peace.

And I’d just invited the past inside.

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