The Widow and the Wild

The scent of coffee hung in the air, a small comfort in the quiet kitchen. Hadley Pell, her gray hair a disheveled halo, sat at the table, painstakingly filling out a contest form. Her fat orange tabby, Onus, watched from his perch atop the refrigerator, his gaze a perpetual glare. Five years had passed since Harry was gone, but the ache remained, a dull throb beneath the surface of her days. She adjusted her glasses, focusing on the small print. 'We Need a Jingle.' Another contest, another chance for a small distraction. Maury's voice crackled through her old flip phone, pulling her back to the present. "Not another contest! What do you win? A butler and a maid and a truckload of stain remover?" Hadley chuckled, then returned to the form, her mind drifting between the mundane task and the persistent echoes of memory, of Harry's laughter, of the life they had planned. Later, the thud of the morning paper against the back door jolted her. Headlines screamed from the page, news that would ripple through the quiet town and pull Hadley into an unexpected new chapter: Eustian Singlepenny was dead.