In that moment, I understood everything I had missed. Amelia hadn’t been hovering because she didn’t have a life. She had been searching for one. Trying to figure out who she was once I no longer needed her the way I used to.
She hadn’t been stuck.
Seeing My Sister Clearly for the First Time
I apologized through tears. For my words. For my impatience. For not seeing her sooner.
She hugged me tightly, the way she always had, but this time there was something different in her posture. Something steadier. As if she had finally shifted the weight she’d been carrying for years.
“I’ll always be your sister,” she said quietly. “But I needed to learn how to be something else, too.”
I knelt in front of Lily and introduced myself. She didn’t say much, but she leaned closer to Amelia, her small hand slipping into hers with instinctive trust.
That trust had been earned.
Love Doesn’t End. It Grows.
I left that day feeling lighter and heavier all at once. Lighter because the fear that had haunted me was gone. Heavier because I finally understood the depth of what my sister had carried alone.
Amelia hadn’t lost herself.
She had rebuilt herself.
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