Sara Ikkari Rodriguez:
It had been exactly one month. One month since I moved into this house. One month of silence. One month of trying, waiting, hurting. And suddenly, I felt... done. Not angry. Not heartbroken. Just empty. I looked in the mirror and didn't recognize the girl staring back. Pale, hollow-eyed, a shadow of who she used to be. This wasn't me. This wasn't living. It was surviving on scraps of hope that were never going to come.
The doctor's words echoed in my mind long after she left. "Stress, exhaustion, and a severe chill." That was all it took for my body to betray me, to succumb to the torment Matio so casually inflicted. But I was done being a victim. I was done with silent suffering.
I spent the day resting, but beneath the surface of my forced calm, a resolve was ha
