chapter 2

A bitter smile twisted my lips. Everything began to rot three years ago, when Lois bled into our lives.

Juan started running her errands, fixing her shelves, becoming her keeper. This year, he moved her next door.

The official reason was convenience—to better care for his fallen brother's wife. The truth hung between us, a putrid, unspoken thing.

I swallowed it all. Gulp after gulp of poison, for a love I thought was real. But his absence last night was the final dose. The cup was empty.

I picked up the divorce papers. The pen felt cold. I signed my name—Lydia Gray—in one fluid, decisive stroke.

"When do we file?"

I fought to keep my voice level, a stark contrast to the tremor in my hand.

Juan didn't speak. His eyes burned into my signature.

A long silence stretched, thin and sharp. Then, a slow, mocking smile carved its way onto his face.

"Now."

The courthouse was nearly empty. Efficient. Sterile. Within minutes, a fresh divorce decree was pressed into my palm. The paper was warm from the printer, but it felt like a slab of ice.

Something inside me vanished. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

A hollowed-out space where a decade of my life used to be.

Lois looped her arm through Juan's, a deliberate performance, and steered him toward me.

"Hey, sorry about that... I forgot you two are divorced now. Is it okay if I still call you Lydia?"

She basked in her victory, every laugh line a triumphant crevice.

"You don't have a car," she observed, all false concern. "Why not ride back with us? We're going the same way."

I shot back with a firm refusal, walking past them to leave.

But as our shoulders brushed, her voice dropped to a venomous whisper and slithered into my ear.

"Does it hurt? Being thrown away? Your husband, your home—they're mine now. You're just a stray dog who finally lost."

I lifted my head. Her face was a placid mask, the smile untouched.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face? Why do you keep staring?"

Juan moved instantly, a shield blocking her. His eyes were warning flares.

"I don't know what game you're playing, but if you even think of hurting Lois... I will end you."

They turned, a united front, and slid into the car. Before disappearing, Juan's eyes met mine—a final, unreadable darkness.

I turned, my face a blank page. I took one step. Then the world tipped, my vision bleeding into swallowing black.

The first thing I registered was the antiseptic sting. A doctor looked down, her expression carved from disapproval.

"You're pregnant. Did you know that? You can't skip meals. Your blood sugar bottomed out."

My eyes snapped wide. The word echoed in the hollowed-out space where my life had been.

"Pregnant?"

But I was barren. Years of trying. A graveyard of negative tests.

We'd endured the cycles—the injections, the humiliations, the hope that curdled into grief. A dozen times. Twenty. I'd lost count.

I had made peace with the void. Now a stranger claimed my body had done the impossible.

"Your constitution is fragile. Have your partner come to me. I'll go over the instructions."

I stared at the flat plane of my belly. A laugh, thin and bitter as ash, rose in my throat.

Partner? He had ceased to exist sixty seconds before my world went dark.