Her home, her Eden. They had burned down. Rose had been there, she had seen the flames. She had felt their heat, tasted the acrid smoke in her mouth. She knew it was true.
But somehow, through her stay in the hospital and her time at Nate's place, she had managed to convince herself that things were not so bad. That the damage would be the equivalent of a kitchen fire, like a curtain catching fire, but the flames being put out with absolutely no damage to anything else.
The reality was very far from the fictional scenario that her mind had concocted. The bones of the building still stood, but that was it. The whole building had been gutted, the windows were all broken. The jagged edges standing out, sharp and soot stained. Not the clean, clear glass she used to wipe so that people could look in and see her beautiful flowers.
