LOGINNobody moved,we didn't even breathe,the apartment felt like it was frozen in timeJulian stood in the doorway staring at the little girl,and the little girl unaware of the whole situation just stared back completely clueless,His briefcase lay forgotten on the floor beside himAva looked like she might be sick,I on the other hand couldn't feel my hands anymore and just then Julian did something none of us expected,He laughed not because it was funny, or even because he was happy,This man was so shocked that he didn't know when a disbelieving laugh escaped him before he rubbed both hands over his face and yelled "No." And just immediately the little girl's smile faltered,my heart dropped at the same timeJulian looked at Ava,then back at the child and right back at at Ava again."No."Ava's face went pale"What?""No."He repeated againHis voice was stronger this time,it was certain it sounded so sure,The certainty caught all of us off guard with Ava included"What do you mean no?"Ju
Three weeks later,life didn't explode which honestly felt suspicious because after Mom's letter, everything continued normally,work,groceries,snowstorms with sofia learning that "no" was apparently a personal challenge rather than a boundary it was a normal life,the kind I had once thought we would never get.It was a Thursday afternoon when everything changed yet again I was in the kitchen trying to convince Sofia that crayons belonged on paper and not the walls when the apartment buzzer rang and I glanced at the clock and it was still 2:17 p.m and Julian was still at work which means whoever that is , it's definitely not Julian and I wasn't expecting anyone,the buzzer rang againSofia immediately pointed toward the door."Dada!""No, sweetheart."Probably a delivery,I pressed the intercom button."Hello?"A woman's voice answered."Hi. Is Julian Reyes home?"I felt sick as my heart dropped go my stomach not because of what she said but due to how she said it rather too comfortabl
The birthday ended perfectly and that should have served as my first warning,Because life had taught me one thing very clearly and that was whenever I started believing everything was finally settledsomething happened,it wasn't always bad but just unexpected.By ten-thirty that night, Sofia was asleep surrounded by enough new stuffed animals to start her own small zoo,the apartment was quiet again,while half-deflated balloons floated lazily near the ceiling the wrapping paper still littered some parts of the living room ,the remains of birthday cake sat forgotten in the refrigerator,just a normal family mess but the best kind.Julian stretched out on the couch beside me, looking completely exhausted and said “ we barely survived, "Barely ,I quoted him And he nodded seriously you know one year olds are terrifying, He saidAnd that made me let out a soft laugh"You spent half the day carrying her around on your shoulders,I reminded him"Exactly She's learning my weaknesses."He agre
For three full seconds neither of us spoke , u lian just stared at my phone and I on the other hand was just staring at Him and as if we're pressed play on a remote at the same time we both said the exact same thing at the exact same time"Oh noI laughed first,Julian looked personally offended by the situation."How did we forget?""You're asking me?" I pointed at him. "You're the one who remembers random facts from documentaries Well that's completely different." He said"Our daughter is turning one tomorrow,Hiis face somehow became even more horrified as he said that"She's been alive for a year?He asked no one in particular I started laughing so hard I had to lean against the counter.Julian dragged a hand down his face slowly in disappointment "This feels irresponsible,it is irresponsible we are supposed to know these things we definitely should know these things we are her parents The apartment fell silent,then all of a sudden"We need a cake” I said as if that wasn't an ob
The photograph stayed on my mind longer than I expected not in a bad way cause it was just.. there,you know like when you got a song stuck in your head after hearing it once the next morning I woke up before Julian for the first time in weeks and the apartment was quiet,the kind of quiet that only existed before Sofia woke up and decided everyone else should be awake too.Sunlight slipped through the curtains in soft golden strips and just for a moment, I just lay there,listening,breathing,existing with no alarms,no emergencies,no fear just peace the type that I wasn't used to it and honestly I don't think a part of me ever would be carefully, I slipped out of bed,Julian barely moved that was so typical of him ,the man could sleep through an earthquake I took a pause beside the bed and smiled,His hair was a mess with one arm stretched across my side of the mattress like he had reached for me in his sleep and found nothingsomething about that made my chest hurt in the best way, I le
The ice rink should have been the end of the story at least for that night ,but Julian spent the entire walk home making fun of my skating abilities while I threatened divorce at least six separate times which of course none of them was taken seriously and for the most of the walk home,Sofia slept through all of it, bundled inside her stroller like the tiny queen she believed herself to be and by the time we reached the apartment building, snow had started falling again,soft and lazy,the kind that made the city feel smaller and somehow safer.Julian held the lobby door open for me"After tonight, I think it's fair to say I carried this family.He said as he held the doorI rolled my eyes at him"You literally almost fell twice ,He said noticing my sass"Allegedly,I defended myself "I saw it happen He addedBut you had no withess,and I couldn't help but laugh at myself as I said that.The sound followed us into the elevator,When we finally got upstairs, Sofia was still asleep and that
We didn’t knock. I don’t remember deciding that. It just… didn’t happen. No pause. No count to three. No look that says are we really doing this. Julian turned the knob. Slow. Careful. Like he was trying not to wake the house itself. Like the house might open one eye and tell on us. The loc
After Mom left, the office felt wrong. Smaller. Like the walls had shifted when we weren’t looking. Like the room was leaning in on us, listening. The air was thick with everything she’d said. Every ugly word just sitting there, not going away. No quiet. No relief. Just this buzzing feeling und
Twenty-nine minutes later,The office reeks of us our sweat, sex, Julian's perfume, and the sharp feeling of adrenaline rush. Julian still hasn’t let go he has his arms iron around my waist, cock softening but still buried inside me, twitching every time my thighs quiver. I’m straddling him in the
Mom goes back to bed at 10:47 p.m with a sleeping pill and her noise machine.The houe went completely quiet ,I’m in my room leaving the door cracked exactly two inches like he had told me earlier I wore nothing but the USB drive on a thin silver chain between my tits, It’s metal felt cold against m







