Kaya’s POV
Kaya lay in the cold, cramped room, her eyes fixed on the single, flickering light above. The weight of silence settled on her, heavy and suffocating. She had lost track of time—days and nights blended into a single haze of despair and exhaustion. But despite everything, her hand instinctively rested on her belly, gently cradling the one precious thing that kept her from surrendering completely. Her child. Her little lifeline.
She tightened her grip on her pendant, the one small token she’d managed to keep hidden. It was her only link to a world beyond these four walls, a world that felt like it had been stripped away from her overnight. The distant echo of footsteps outside the door pulled her from her thoughts, and her heartbeat quickened, pulse hammering in her ears. Every
