I signed my name on a stranger's paper without asking what it would cost me later. Now the license lies under Kenneth's hand in this sunlit suite, and he watches me like the contract already belongs to him. My scar pulls tight above my heart with every breath.

This was supposed to protect me from losing everything again. I kept telling myself the marriage was just ink and witnesses. But his scar shows through his sleeve when he moves, and I know he carries his own kind of wound.

Two steps away feels like nothing when he says my name like that. The night is waiting for me to cross it, and I do not know if I can stop myself from giving him the last piece I have left to give.