Page 35 of Wrong Marriage. Right Groom

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Everything had changed.

Or maybe everything had ended.

Life became something I moved through.

Not something I lived.

I built walls and buried everything I couldn’t survive beneath them.

Then I learned to live among the ruins.

Until now.

The small body clinging to me trembled again, dragging me back to the present with a sharp, grounding pull.

She was still here.

Still holding onto me like I was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

“Mama...”

The word came again, softer this time.

My chest tightened so hard it hurt.

This wasn’t my child.

I knew that.

But the feeling—

The pull—

The instinct rising up from somewhere deep and unyielding—

Didn’t care about logic.

It felt like the universe had taken what I lost and thrown something else into my arms.

I swallowed hard, my hand tightening slightly against her back before I forced it to ease again.

I should call the police.

The thought came clearly this time.

This terrified child wasn’t my situation to handle.

I should hand her over.

Stay out of whatever darkness she had escaped from.

My fingers twitched faintly at my side, remembering the phone now lying somewhere on the floor between us.

All I had to do was reach down.

Pick it up. Press the buttons.

End this.

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