Cassie blew out a breath. She refused to let her mother control her future any longer. Maybe she'd still be outcast. Maybe going into her mother's bedroom would do nothing more than exacerbate her pain.
Or maybe clearing out her mother's space and ridding herself of mom's things would free her.
She didn't want to be caught anymore in the sticky web of her mother's past.
Her stomach clenched with anxiety as she extracted the key and put it into her pocket.
As she pushed open the door, the hinges creaked in protest. The musty smell of disuse and dust invaded her nostrils. And within it, she detected the faint scent of her mother's homemade rose perfume.
She swallowed hard.
Then she stepped into the room.
Her mother's ornate cherry wood four-poster bed dominated the space. The thick purple comforter and lavender silk sheets were thrown back as if she'd just awakened and gotten up.
