Chapter 6 — Before I Change My Mind

I never tried again — until a gray, rainy morning that February, when Edith called me into her room before breakfast and said something I had waited months without ever expecting to hear.

“Close the door, Hannah.” I closed it.

She sat very straight in her chair by the window, her hands folded in her lap, and she did not look at me.

“I want you to bring a basin of warm water,” she said.