se

hts flashed outside, mocking my gray, broken world. I clutched

ust the emotional turmoil; it felt physical. I cracked t

ns after a failed IVF cycle could cause physical discomfor

ablishment for sports elites, a place Jase frequented. I'd never

and pushed the door open. The doorm

oice steady. "I'm his wife." The man's

ed of cigars and expensive cologne. Men in sharp suits talke

, in a booth at the fa

as kissing her hair. They looked so perfect, so ha

replacing the numbness

f my heels against the marble flo

e, then twisted into an expression of annoyan

no panic in her eyes, only a triumphant smi

cry. I didn't scream. I just looked

me. "Alyse, don't make a sc

ich home? The one I decorated for us, o

e sincerity. "Sister, don't blame Jase

so much like my mother's. "Truly in love? Your l

dening. "Alyse, that's enough! Sie

in the heart. I had just lost my chance at a child

eyes darting between the three of us. I

y purse, pulled out the key to our apartment,

id, each word precise. "Not because of you

glance. Behind me, I heard Jase's stunned

d. I nearly collapsed. The naus

wall as my phone ra

call, desperate to escap

our real home. The one with the nursery I had

nt, I walked straight int

had assembled myself. Tiny socks I

a flood I could no longer hold back. I had prepared everything for t

. I irritably declined it once more,

t hung up on Dr. Evans, tryi

e was a success.

nded by the dream world I had created,

tled into my bones, accompanied b