When He Knew

Ashleigh got up from the bed and stepped away from her mother.

“Ashleigh?” Corrine called.

Fiddling with something at her desk, Ashleigh did not respond.

“Honey, what is it?” Corrine asked, concern pouring into her words.

Ashleigh took a deep breath.

‘I can’t tell her,’ she thought to herself, ‘I don’t want her to know how weak I was.’

Corrine stood up from the bed, watching her daughter’s reaction closely.

“Did he do something to you?” she asked carefully.

Ashleigh felt her eyes widen and her heart speed up. Quickly she focused on calming her heart before her mother noticed.

“Things have changed,” Ashleigh said. “For me.”

“Tell me,” Corrine said.

Ashleigh still did not turn around. Instead, she looked at the picture that sat on her desk. The photograph of her and Granger on his nineteenth birthday. They had only known each other for a few months at that point. But she had never been so happy.