Chapter 11

The morning light filtered through the half-drawn curtains, soft and indifferent, as if the night before hadn’t left a bruise on everything.

We sat at the small kitchen table, plates of toast and scrambled eggs between us, the coffee already cooling in our mugs. Serena pushed a piece of toast toward me with a small smile on her face.

“You need to eat, Essie. Really eat. You’ve been running empty.” She reached across and squeezed my wrist. “And you need to start building again, not just surviving. Something of your own. A plan. Even if it’s small at first. I’ll help you look at options…jobs, whatever feels right. You’re not starting from nothing. You are starting from everything you’ve already survived.”

I nodded, chewing slowly, the bread didn't have a taste. My mind wouldn’t stay on her words. It kept circling round divorce papers and the envelope still sitting on the counter where I had left it last night.

I keep seeing Leo with that cool, final look in his eyes..the one that said I was never to contact him again, never to come near him, never to “complicate” things. Sign it, and walk away clean. Refuse, and… they didn't say a threat, but I had felt it settle into my ribs all the same.

I still haven't decided. Every time I think of signing, something in me recoiled. Every time I think of not signing, the weight of everything I had already lost pressed harder.

Serena’s phone buzzed against the wood of the table. A sharp, single beep.

Her eyes flicked down, and for a second the careful warmth on her face slipped. She stood quickly, already reaching for it.

“I need to take this. Just a minute.”

She stepped into the bedroom, the door almost closing behind her. I heard the low murmur of her voice, too quiet to catch the words.

My stomach turned as I recalled her expression Last night..the way color had drained from her face, the way her hand had locked around the phone, the way she had smacked my hands away when I tried to see. The apology afterward had been soft, but the fear in her eyes had not been.

What was she hiding?

I stared at my plate, my appetite gone. I have never really had a big appetite for food but I need to take care of my health for my baby.

Serena returned, slipping her phone into her pocket.

She sat again, but her shoulders stayed tense. She picked up her fork, pushed eggs around, then set it down.

“I need to run out for a few things,” she said. “Groceries and the pharmacy, I will get you some vitamins. I won’t be long.”

She was already standing as she spoke, already moving toward the door and I noticed how her hands fumbled with the keys, how she glanced once at the hallway as if expecting someone to appear. Panic, thin but unmistakable, sat under the surface of her expression.

“Serena—”

“I’ll be back soon. Eat. Please.”

I sat there for a long minute, the toast growing cold.

Standing up, I walked to the counter, and pulled the envelope toward me. My hands were steadier than I expected as I slid the papers out. Divorce petition.

The usual cold ending of marriage between two persons who thought they were inlove.

I flipped through the papers as tears welled up my eyes….

“What the hell is marriage for?” I hissed.

My eyes fell on a clause…something about residual claims and waivers of future interest that seemed to stretch further than it should.

This wordings is dense, legal, and it made my head ache.

I stared at the paragraph until the letters blurred, Folding the page again, I slid everything back into the envelope, and set it aside. Later. I would deal with it later. Right now I couldn’t.

Returning to the table, I forced another bite of eggs, chewing without tasting.

Just then, my phone rang.

An unknown number glowed on the screen.