Chapter 1: The Knock For thirty years, I had lived with a ghost. Not the kind that rattled chains or whispered through walls. Gabriel lived in quieter places. In the pause before rain. In the smell of cedar smoke on cold nights. In old songs I could never finish. In the part of my heart that had never fully grown around the wound. People said grief softens with time. That it becomes lighter, easier to carry. Maybe that is true for some losses. But first love, buried young, does not leave politely. It stays exactly where it broke you. So...
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