Part 1: The Unseen Changes

The moment I stepped through the front door, the air felt different. It was something intangible—like walking into a room that had been rearranged but nothing had been moved. George and I had taken a two-week break at our country house. We needed the time, just the two of us, a respite from the usual hustle of our everyday life. When we left, we had given our son and his wife, Natalie, a simple offer: “Make yourselves at home while we’re gone.”

We didn’t expect anything extraordinary, just a little care in our absence. But when I walked into the kitchen, it was as if I had stepped into a completely different house.