Liora stood frozen.
No, not frozen. Her soul was screaming, ripping at the seams, flailing for air that no longer existed. The words the robot had spoken—so cheerful, so sterile, so painfully oblivious...rattled through her like shards of glass.
"Congratulations, Miss Aeris. You are pregnant."
Her hands gripped nothing. Her breath caught. Her mind spun, spiraling into a thousand fragmented thoughts as Aeris sat silently on the examination cot, pale and trembling.
Her body trembled as the realization thundered through her.
She had been pregnant before.
Aeris. Liora. Her.
Her knees buckled in the memory space, collapsing into the black fog of Aeris's subconscious. Her mouth hung open, breathless, wordless. Her mind reeled.
If she was pregnant before… then… where is the child now?
Where?
Why had she never seen a child? Why had no one ever mentioned the child to her?
Why had she never felt the weight of small arms around her neck or heard the laugh that should have existed?
