Tired.
Still unmistakably alive.
“Hi, Soph.”
Sophie began crying immediately.
Caroline too.
Hannah talked for eleven minutes.
Not about perfect love.
Not about finding someone like Dad.
She said:
“Do not choose someone because grief makes you grateful for being chosen.”
Caroline stared.
Hannah continued.
“Do not confuse rescuing with loving.”
“Do not stay with someone because leaving would disappoint dead people.”
Then she laughed.
“If your dad has become weird and protective by the time you see this, remind him he once wore leather pants to a concert.”
Sophie gasped.
Caroline laughed so hard she paused the video.
“Evidence.”
Sophie looked delighted.
“Dad wore leather pants?”
“Apparently.”
“This is the best day of my life.”
Andrew denied everything.
Photographs later proved otherwise.
Hannah’s videos changed after that.
They stopped being sacred explosives.
Became messages.
Some wise.
Some outdated.
One recommended a restaurant that closed years earlier.
One told Sophie to ask Aunt Melissa for dating advice; Melissa later divorced twice and openly withdrew from that role.
Family learned the dead could leave love without leaving perfect instructions.
At sixteen, Sophie broke the locket chain again.
This time no one panicked.
She brought it to Caroline.
“Can you take it to Mr. Patel?”
Same jeweler.
Caroline smiled.
“You remember?”
“He fixes things.”
“Yes.”
Sophie handed it over.
No tears.
No grabbing.
No hidden meaning.
Just jewelry repair.
Mr. Patel replaced the chain entirely.
Sophie chose a sturdier one.
Caroline paid.
Sophie reimbursed her from part-time-job money.
“Unnecessary.”
Caroline said.
“It’s mine.”
Sophie replied.
Caroline smiled.
“Correct.”
At seventeen, Sophie and Andrew had their worst fight.
College.
Andrew wanted her close.
Sophie wanted University of Washington.
Seattle.
Far.
Andrew disguised fear as finances.
In-state tuition.
Travel costs.
Support networks.
All reasonable points.
Too many reasonable points often meant emotion hiding underneath.
Sophie saw it.
“You don't want me to leave because Mom left.”
Andrew stopped.
Caroline sat at the kitchen island wishing she were invisible.
Andrew’s face hardened.
“Do not use that.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother did not leave.”
“She died.”
“I know.”
“Then don't compare college to death.”
Sophie started crying.
Caroline intervened.
Not to decide.
“Pause.”
Both looked.
She continued.
“Andrew, she is not saying Hannah chose to die.”
“She is saying separation scares you.”
“That part is obvious.”
Andrew looked furious.
Because it was.
Caroline turned toward Sophie.
“And you do not get to use your mother’s death as a shortcut that ends every argument.”
Sophie stared.
“You still need to discuss cost.”
“Travel.”
“What happens if you need help.”
Sophie looked away.
Both sides unhappy.
Excellent mediation.
They chose Washington.
Scholarship helped.
Andrew cried after leaving the dorm.
Caroline drove because he could not.
At eighteen, Sophie finally received legal control of Hannah’s personal-property inventory.
There was almost nothing dramatic left.
Jewelry.
Art.
Letters.
A few valuable pieces.
The locket officially appeared in the estate memorandum:
Silver oval locket, family photographs, intended for Sophie when age appropriate.
Not legally magical.
Just clear.
Sophie laughed when she read it.
“All that.”
Caroline looked over.