Paula's eyes stayed locked on the image on her phone, unable to tear herself away. The picture was old, faded, but unmistakable.
The woman in the photograph was her mother, Zoey, wearing the same dress Paula had last seen her in—the dress she had been buried in after the car accident that had left Paula motherless.
The mere sight of the dress made Paula's heart pound, and she struggled to make sense of the message she had just received.
"Who are you? How should I believe this is true?" Paula had typed out her question, her fingers shaking.
The response came almost instantly. "You know it's true, Paula. You know it's the dress your Mom wore on the day of her death."
Paula's throat constricted, preventing her from breathing. She had spent years trying to push away the thought that her mother's death might have been anything other than a tragic accident. She had tried to believe her mother's death was natural.
