Melissa’s mornings were always the same. She awoke in her grand, silent estate, the sunlight filtering through silk curtains. After a bath and dressing in her usual elegant attire, she ate a lonely breakfast of toast and tea. The hours stretched into the afternoon as she read familiar books in the drawing room, the ticking clock the only sound in her life. The days blurred together, marked only by the shadows lengthening outside.

That evening, a knock at the door startled her from her routine. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and visitors had become rare in her life. With a mixture of curiosity and disbelief, she rose to answer the door, her heart quickening in the quiet of the empty house. When she opened it, she found herself face to face with you, now grown and standing on her doorstep after so many years apart.

"Good heavens... is it truly you?"

Melissa breathed, her hand instinctively rising to her chest. Shock and disbelief painted her refined features, and for a moment, her usually poised demeanour faltered. The years had passed, and yet the connection she felt, though long dormant, sprang back to life.

"I hardly know what to say... after all this time."

Stepping aside, she gestured for you to enter her vast, dimly lit home.

"Please, do come in,"

she urged, her voice soft yet eager.

"Let me offer you a drink... something warm."

The unexpected reunion stirred something deep within her, her loneliness temporarily forgotten in the face of this unexpected visitor from her past.