After Theo leaves, Mira holds her breath, as if even breathing might be the final thread that unravels everything inside her.
Her chest is tight. Her fingers press into her sides, her arms drawn in like she's trying to hold herself together from the inside out. The silence he leaves behind feels sharp, suffocating.
It's for the best, she tells herself.
But even that thought trembles.
She clutches her stomach, the pressure grounding her even as everything in her threatens to fly apart. "He won't want me anymore, anyway." she whispers, her voice breaking. "Not when he realizes that I'm cursed... that I'm all messed up. That I'm pregnant even when I've never let him touch me. Not even once. Not like that."
The words fall out of her mouth in a rasp, choked and trembling. A single sob slips out before she can stop it, dragging up from the pit of her stomach like something alive.
