Nadine watched her grandmother soar higher and higher into the sky.
Just before she broke through the clouds, Rani turned back to give her granddaughter one final, parting look.
The look of anger and rage within her grandmother's eyes all but broke Nadine's heart. She found herself dropping her gaze, unable to watch her last living relative disappear from her life.
For so long, Rani was the only part of home that Nadine actually enjoyed.
She saw her grandmother rarely, but on the few occasions that she was able, she remembered her grandmother being kind, if a bit uptight, was as graceful as a sunset in the autumn sky.
It bothered Nadine to disappoint someone who meant so much to her. Someone whom she had only just learned was still alive.
And yet, Nadine had drawn her line in the sand with great difficulty. Her family was her entire world now. She would never leave them, for anyone or anything.
"I... probably should have handled that better. I'm sorry."
