ise

t melody, a chirpy pop song I had come to associate with dread, sliced through the heavy

g his face. My declaration of divorce, our shattered marriage, the raw woun

stepping forward, her hand reach

answer. "Hello?" His voice, which had just been sharp and accusatory

nch, a phantom pain. He was leaving. Again. For her. W

" I said, my voice dangerously low, "it's ove

eyes held a mixture of frustration and impatience. "Eloise, this i

in front of him. "Dawson, look at her! You

e will calm down. She always does." He looked at me, a hint of patr

st 'calm down'? You think after everything, after what you just s

hat away over a bit of money and a misunderstanding. We're stronger than this." He believed it, truly. H

r. The bitter laugh died in my throat. I heard the soft click a

the heat of our argument, I must have knocked it off the side table. My smiling face, his arm around me, forever frozen

n glass. It glistened, then disappeared. This wasn't the first tear, and it would

of success and ego. The Dawson who cried with me after our first loss, the Dawson who cherished our shared dreams. But that Dawson was gone

a marriage to save. It was a wound that need

, drove to a clinic across town. The sterile smell, the quiet hum of fluorescent li

gently, her voice barely a whisper in the quiet consultation room. "Another termination... it

was discussing someone else's body, someone else's future. My future, my hopes for motherh

ss. My mind drifted back to the first time, the raw grief, Dawson's tear-streaked face, his whispered promises. Now, there was just silence.

post-op instructions. "No heavy lifting. Take your

corridor seemed to stretch endlessly before me. My steps were sluggish, my body a heavy shell. I

en I s

ws

ng on his shoulder, a picture of fragile vulnerability. He was stroking her hair, murmuring something I couldn't he

t light of a hospital corridor. The place where I had just quietly, privately, ended our second chance a

space where my heart used to be. The last flicker of hope in me died, extinguished by th