Side story 2. Jessica.

The house is quiet since it's nighttime, the remnants of the road trip still echoing in the air. Emma is safely settled into her new life at Harvard, her laughter and chatter absent from the rooms she once filled with vibrant energy. I sit at the dining table, my laptop open before me, my fingers hovering over the keyboard. It's a simple click away, a mere press of the "Submit" button, and my application to the nearby university will be on its way. Yet, the weight of that action presses on my chest like a heavy stone. I swallow, the gulp resounding in my ears as I feel that single drop of sweat slide down my back.

Ten years. It has been a decade since I walked away from my studies, leaving behind dreams of a career and a future that faded into the background of life's other demands. A decade of nurturing my sisters, of supporting Sophie, of being Emma's guardian and finally a wife to Devon. But now, in the quiet of the house, the silence echoes with the resounding question: Is it too