Chapter 5

~Aria~

My life was a mess. After the shame and humiliation I went through, I locked myself in my room for two days straight. I barely ate, barely moved.

Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was the way my late parents looked at me, the way my father looked at me.

I had failed him and my mother. I had jeopardized their hard work and fed it to those vipers.

I was a failure.

Curled up in my misery I decided to just lay there, expecting the worst to come. After all, there was nothing left.

But my grandmother wouldn't let me drown in it. She kept knocking, kept calling my name, kept forcing me to remember that I wasn't alone, that I had a baby now, a life growing in me.

When I finally stepped out of the room, I felt like a ghost of myself. My body was weak and worn out, the morning sickness had kicked in, making everything worse.

I caught my reflection in the mirror hung on the corridor, I barely recognised the girl staring back. I couldn’t even remember the last time I gave my