ELARA
“Are you really going to marry him?”
The soft, hesitant voice of Emmeline pulled me away from my writing. My pen stilled mid-sentence, and I looked up to see her standing there, her wide blue eyes fixed on me, brimming with an innocence that felt almost too fragile for this world.
How my parents could ever bring sadness to those eyes, I’ll never understand.
“Who exactly are we talking about?” I asked, leaning back in my seat.
“Dave,” she murmured. Slowly, she got off the bed and walked over to where I was sitting on the sofa.
I closed the book I had been writing in, careful to shield its contents from her gaze. She settled beside me, glancing at my stomach before sighing softly and looking away, as if the sight of me made the question she was about to ask even harder.
“Are yo
