Chapter 10 - CHRISTMAS AGAIN
The following Christmas, Margaret set the same dining table.
Same silver. Same crystal. Same cranberry cake.
The house glowed the same way it always had in winter.
But this year, when she stood in the center of the room, the air felt lighter.
Emily came downstairs carrying a bowl of green beans.
Oliver followed with napkins tucked under one arm in a way that made him look absurdly serious. Sadie wore a red hair bow and insisted on placing candy canes beside every plate.
There were only five settings this year.
Margaret’s at the head.
Thomas’s place remained empty in the old, gentle way it always would.
Emily stopped beside her.
“You okay?”
Margaret looked at the table.
At the candles.
At the chair.
At her daughter.
“Yes,” she said.
And for once, it was not a lie.
The front door remained closed all evening.
No one arrived to take anything.
No one claimed the room.
No one reached for what wasn’t theirs.
Before they sat down, Sadie tugged Margaret’s sleeve.
“Grandma?”
“Yes?”
“Can you sit first?”
Margaret smiled. “Why?”
“So nobody takes your chair.”
The room went quiet for one tiny second.
Then Emily laughed through tears.
Margaret bent and kissed the top of Sadie’s head.
“No one’s taking my chair,” she said.
May you like
She sat down.
And this time, nobody moved it.
