Mara stood in her front yard, staring at the faint watermarks etched into the side of her house like scars. The last flood had reached higher than ever before, swallowing the porch and leaving behind a film of mud and despair. She had scrubbed for days, but the stains refused to fade.

The insurance renewal notice sat crumpled in her pocket. The premium had tripled this year.

“It’s the risk,” the agent had said over the phone, his tone clinical. “Your area is now classified as a high-risk flood zone.”

“But I’ve lived here my whole life,” Mara had argued. “We’ve never had this many floods before.”

The agent sighed. “That’s just the reality now.”

Reality. Mara’s reality was a small, creaky house passed down from her grandparents, nestled in a neighborhood that had always been safe. Until it wasn’t.

Her neighbors were leaving one by one, their windows boarded up, for-sale signs sagging in the heat. Some had given up on insurance altogether, gambling that the next storm wouldn’t hit. Mara couldn’t do that. She had a son, Liam, and the thought of losing what little they had kept her awake at night.

“Mom,” Liam called from the doorway, holding a toy truck. “Are we going to move?”

Mara turned to him, her throat tightening. She wanted to say no, to promise him they’d stay, that this was home. But the numbers on the notice in her pocket loomed large. The new premium would swallow her savings whole, and even then, it wouldn’t cover everything.

“Not yet,” she said, forcing a smile.

Liam nodded, satisfied, and went back inside. Mara stayed, her feet sinking into the damp earth. She glanced at the flood line on the house again and made a silent vow.

Tomorrow, she’d call the bank about selling. It broke her heart, but she couldn’t keep pouring money into a future that water would only wash away.

As the sun dipped low, casting long shadows across the yard, Mara closed her eyes and tried to remember what this place had looked like before the floods—when the grass was green, the air was light, and the word “risk” hadn’t yet seeped into every corner of her life.