Mara's POV
She booked the viewing the next morning and signed the lease two days after that, moving with the brisk, almost mechanical efficiency she used when she didn't trust herself to feel anything in the gaps between decisions. A small flat across the city, nothing special, available immediately because the previous tenant had broken their lease early. She didn't examine why that detail felt apt.
She told Priya first. Priya, for once, didn't push, didn't tease, didn't do the face. She just looked at Mara for a long moment and said, "Are you sure," and Mara said, "No," and Priya hugged her without saying anything else, which was somehow exactly the right response.
She decided to tell Ethan on Thursday evening, the night before the movers were booked.
She'd rehearsed it a dozen diffe
