When she needed a helping hand, I never questioned her motives or hesitated for even a single second, which was precisely the mindset I carried when she arrived at my front porch alongside her husband, Ronald, to ask for a favor that would permanently tear our lives apart. Samantha walked straight through my front entrance without bothering to knock, while Ronald trailed behind her carrying a decorated pastry box with a unusually stiff posture.
“You look completely exhausted, Alison,” Samantha remarked gently as she rested her heavy leather handbag onto my wooden dining table.
“I have looked completely exhausted since the late nineties,” I joked lightheartedly while pouring three fresh glasses of iced tea. “What brings you two over so unannounced today?”
Ronald cleared his throat awkwardly, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses before sitting down across from me with a solemn expression that immediately caught my attention. “We came here to ask you something that is incredibly vital to our future, Alison.”
