Thanksgiving dinner is meant to bring the family together. For one woman, it exposes every fracture.

Old resentments rise. Secrets press at the edges. The weight of expectations bears down until the cost of holding it all together becomes too much to carry.

When the tension boils over, Marlena must face the cost of a lifetime spent invisible, and decide whether to endure it or let it all go.

Releasing Marlena is a poignant literary short story about unspoken burdens, fractured bonds, and the breaking point of a mother long unseen.