ALICESix days left of being Catherine Morgan. I lay awake in the dark counting them anyway. One by one. Turning each day over in my head like if I thought about it long enough, time might slow down a little.Vaylen didn’t come home that night. I moved through the penthouse the same way I’d moved through this marriage. The rooms stayed spotless. I made sure of that. The hours passed without sound. Nothing changed. Somehow that had stopped feeling strange a long time ago.The next morning, I counted again while standing by the bedroom window. *Five days left.* The city stretched below me, loud and moving and alive in a way this place never was. It was my birthday. The thought came and went almost immediately. No excitement. No ache either. Just a fact.By noon, I stood at the kitchen counter stirring powder into a glass of water, watching it disappear slowly beneath the spoon. Prenatal vitamins. “Once a day,” the doctor had said two days ago. A responsibility sitting quietly inside
Last Updated : 2026-05-16 Read more