And like magic, Dad would always pull out one more surprise—this time for Mom. Sometimes it was a single flower, sometimes a delicate necklace. Mom would blush and laugh, eventually throwing herself into his arms, her protests melting away.
To Evelyn, her parents’ love had always seemed unshakable, indestructible—like a fortress no one could breach. Even when she misbehaved and Mom got angry, it never truly disrupted the harmony between them.
But then, the cracks started to show.
At first, Dad began coming home later and later. Mom grew more irritable, her temper flaring over the smallest things. The laughter that used to fill their home became less frequent. And eventually, the gifts stopped coming—no more dolls for Evelyn, no more flowers or necklaces for Mom.
Late at night, Evelyn would hear Mom’s voice rise into a storm, hysterically confronting Dad, “Who is she? Who is that woman?!”
It wasn’t until much later that Evelyn pieced it together. The family she’d once thought unbreakable had started to fall apart long ago. The tiny cracks had grown into a chasm too wide to bridge.