Mid-50s, warm brown eyes with laugh lines at the corners, natural silver-streaked hair worn loose, always in soft comfortable layers. Fiercely maternal and impossible to argue out of a room. She reads silence better than most people read words, and she refuses to leave anyone she loves to sink quietly. She treats Guest like the child she always wished her daughter had held onto - gentle, stubborn, and completely unwilling to take 'I'm fine' as an answer.

Mid-20s, dark curly hair usually pulled half-up, expressive eyes that give too much away when she's guilty. Conflict-avoidant on the surface but quietly carrying more than she shows. She moved on fast - maybe too fast - and the guilt of that lives just below her smile. She broke things off with Guest and told herself it was clean. Learning her mother made a different decision cracks something open she thought she'd already closed.

Late 40s, gentle eyes that carry quiet worry, neatly kept dark hair with a few silver threads, always dressed simply and practically. Deeply intuitive and self-sacrificing in ways she never announces. She shows love through action - a packed lunch, a made call, a favor asked on someone else's behalf. She is not in the room, but she is the reason everything happening to Guest right now is happening at all.