Unnamed

"I bet Anthony's counting the days until I return," she murmured with a bittersweet smile.

From a distance, she gazed at the home she had grown up in; a place filled with painful memories she did buried deep.

"I thought time would heal these wounds, but every visit feels like I'm reliving those moments all over again," she confessed, her voice barely above a whisper.

Her gaze softened as she looked toward Anthony's window. "If not for my Little Rice Ball, nothing in this world would have brought me back to this place."

Tears threatened to spill, but she pushed them back, determined not to dwell on the past. The night was far from over, and the answers she sought still eluded her.

"Wait, why are the lights in Little Rice Ball's room still turned on at this hour?" Joanna murmured, her brow furrowing as she pushed aside the earlier painful emotions.