Chapter: 6: A FRESH START.Layla's povClaudia's words stayed with me long after she left.I sat on the couch in the apartment that felt too small and too full of ghosts, stared at the bassinet in the corner and the tiny clothes I'd folded with such hope, tried to imagine staying here surrounded by all these reminders of what I'd lost.Every room held a memory of preparing for her.The nursery I'd painted pale yellow because I hadn't known if she'd be a boy or girl.The rocking chair I'd found at an estate sale and refinished myself.The changing table still covered in unopened packages of diapers and wipes.All of it mocking me now, all of it screaming that my daughter should be here and wasn't.I picked up my phone and looked at the Paris search I'd started, at flights and apartment listings and language schools, at the possibility of becoming someone else somewhere far away.What was keeping me here?My parents were dead, buried in a cemetery I couldn't bear to visit.My scholarship was gone, revoked when th
Last Updated: 2026-03-05
Chapter: 5: WHAT ABOUT WHAT?Layla's povThree days passed in a blur of pain and doubt.My breasts leaked and ached and I had to bind them tight to stop the constant reminder that my body thought I still had a baby to feed, thought my daughter was waiting somewhere for milk that would never reach her.I stopped calling the hospital.Stopped asking questions that nobody wanted to answer.Took the medication Claudia left for me because it made everything fuzzy and distant and I was so tired of thinking, so tired of the endless loop of questions in my head.Maybe they were right.Maybe grief had broken something in my brain that made me see conspiracies where there were none, made me imagine things that didn't happen.I spent most of my time on the couch staring at nothing while the medication wrapped everything in cotton, made the world feel muffled and far away.Claudia came by every day with food I didn't eat and sympathy I didn't want, sat beside me and talked about healing and moving forward and letting go."Yo
Last Updated: 2026-03-04
Chapter: 4: UNRAVELINGLayla's POV The apartment felt wrong.I stood in the doorway with my hospital bag at my feet and stared at the space I'd left four days ago, at the bassinet in the corner and the tiny clothes folded on the dresser and the changing table I'd set up with such careful hope.Everything was still here.Everything except her.Claudia moved past me into the apartment, set her purse on the counter and turned with that same bright false smile."Why don't you go lie down and I'll make us some tea," she said."I don't want tea," I said while still staring at the bassinet, at the empty space where my daughter should have been. "I want answers.""Layla," Claudia's voice had that warning edge. "You need to stop this, you need to rest and heal and let yourself grieve properly.""How can I grieve properly when nothing makes sense?" I moved further into the apartment, each step feeling heavy and wrong. "When no one will tell me where she is or show me any proof of what happened?""The hospital is han
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Chapter: 3: SEDATED SILENCELayla's POV Night pressed against the window and I lay in the dark staring at the empty chart on the wall, at all the blank spaces where information about my daughter should have been.No death certificate.No record of her existence except the empty space inside my body where she used to be.I couldn't sleep even though exhaustion pulled at me, couldn't stop my brain from cycling through everything that had happened since I woke with empty arms.The doctor who wouldn't meet my eyes.The nurses with their vague promises of later.Claudia's too-tight grip and perfect appearance.The whispered conversation that stopped when they realized I was listening.Something was wrong.I didn't have proof but I knew it the way my body knew my daughter had been real, the way my arms knew they should be holding her.When morning light finally crept through the blinds I was still awake, my mind racing with questions I didn't have answers to, with plans I couldn't quite form through the fog of drugs
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Chapter: 2: MISSING PROOFLayla's POV The room was too quiet after Claudia left.I lay there staring at the white ceiling tiles while the monitors beeped their steady rhythm and tried to make my brain work through the fog of whatever drugs they'd given me.My daughter was dead.That's what they'd said.But where was she?I pressed the call button and waited, counted the seconds until footsteps approached and a nurse I didn't recognize pushed open the door with a practiced smile that didn't reach her eyes."Ms Walsh, what can I do for you?""I need to know where my baby is," I said and kept my voice as steady as I could manage. "I need to see her."The nurse's smile faltered for just a second before snapping back into place."Let me check on that for you," she said, already backing toward the door. "The paperwork is still being processed and once everything is in order we'll let you know.""Processed?" I pushed myself up on my elbows even though my body protested. "What does that mean, what paperwork?""Just s
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Chapter: 1: WHERE'S MY BABY?Layla's POV I woke with empty arms and a memory I couldn't hold onto.A cry.Small and sharp and so alive it had cracked something open in my chest.I'd heard her, hadn't I?My hands moved instinctively to my stomach and found it soft, deflated, wrong, found the absence where she'd been for nine months and my breath caught in my throat because where was she, where was my baby."Where's my baby?"The words came out rough and desperate and the hospital room around me came into focus slowly through the fog in my brain. White walls, too bright lights, the steady beep of monitors and something was wrong, something was very wrong because there was no crib beside my bed, no nurse holding a bundle, no soft sounds of breathing or crying.Just silence.And Claudia.She sat in the chair beside my bed with her hands folded in her lap, her face arranged into an expression I couldn't quite read through the heaviness in my head."Layla," she said softly, reached for my hand. "You're awake.""Where'
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
LOGIN
