No Longer yours

“Mara… you really had no idea, did you?” Vivienne’s voice was soft. Almost gentle. Mara stood near the edge of the rooftop, the wind tugging at her hair and whipping her blouse against her skin. She wrapped her arms around herself without thinking, fingers digging into her own sleeves. “What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice already thin. Vivienne took another step closer. “Daniel was never yours, Mara.” The words hit the air between them and just hung there. Mara stared at her. She heard them. But her brain refused to let them settle. “You’re lying,” she said automatically. It came out flat, almost polite. Vivienne smiled, small, sad, almost pitying. “Daniel and I… we’ve been together the whole time. Long before you even met him.” Mara shook her head, a quick, jerky motion. “No. No, that’s not… I’m his wife. We’ve been married for twenty years.” “Wife,” Vivienne repeated, like the word tasted strange in her mouth. She let out a soft breath that might have been a laugh. “You were… convenient. That’s all.” Mara’s mouth opened, but nothing came out at first. Her throat felt tight, like someone was squeezing it. Vivienne leaned in a little, lowering her voice. “And that daughter of yours… the second one.” Everything in Mara’s body locked up. Her shoulders went rigid. Her breathing stopped for a second. “She was never meant to live.” The wind seemed to die completely. Or maybe Mara just couldn’t hear it anymore over the roaring in her ears. “What did you just say?” Her voice cracked on the last word. Vivienne’s smile didn’t waver. “I’m the reason she never made it.” Something ugly and hot exploded in Mara’s chest. Before she could even think, her arm was already swinging, hand open, fingers curled like claws. A strong hand clamped around her wrist mid-air, stopping her dead. Mara knew who it was before she even turned. Daniel stood right behind her, close enough that she should have felt his presence. His grip was firm, almost gentle in its control. His face, the same face she’d woken up to for two decades, was completely blank. No anger. No guilt. Just… nothing. “Let go of me,” she whispered. He didn’t. Instead, he slowly lowered her arm, like he was handling something fragile that might break. “Don’t embarrass yourself,” he said quietly. Mara searched his eyes desperately, the way she used to when they fought and she needed him to come back to her. “Tell me she’s lying,” she begged, her voice small and trembling. “Daniel, please. Just… tell me she’s lying.” He didn’t answer right away. The silence stretched, filled only by the wind. “Daniel…” “She’s not lying.” The words landed like stones in her stomach. “No…” The word slipped out broken. “No, you wouldn’t… We’ve been together for twenty years, Daniel. Twenty years!!!! I stayed through everything. When we lost her… when things got hard… I never left you. I never even thought about it.” Her voice cracked badly, but she kept pushing the words out, like if she said them fast enough they might still matter. “All those nights I sat up with her when she couldn’t breathe. All the times I carried her alone while you were… God, where were you? I did everything. I gave you everything. Did none of it mean anything to you?” Daniel’s jaw flexed once. “It meant nothing.” Mara felt the words punch through her ribs. She pressed a hand to her chest like she could hold herself together. “And our daughters?” The question tore out of her, raw and ugly. “Did they mean nothing either?” He looked away for a second, then back at her. “The first one was born paralyzed,” he said flatly. “I told you I didn’t want another child.” “I thought…” Mara’s voice shook so hard she could barely get the words out. “I thought if we tried again… if we just loved her enough…” “You thought wrong.” “She needed us!” Mara’s voice finally rose, cracking open after years of being swallowed down. “She needed her father! I was the one feeding her, carrying her, staying up all night when she was struggling to breathe, and you were never there. You were never f*****g there! So how were we a burden to you? How?!” The words echoed across the rooftop. Daniel waited until the echo faded. “I never wanted that life,” he said, quiet and final. “You pushed for the second pregnancy. I let it happen because fighting you was too exhausting. That baby…” He paused, something cold flickering across his face. “Was a mistake.” Mara’s stomach lurched so violently she thought she might be sick right there. “What did you do?” she whispered. “Daniel… what did you do?” Vivienne stepped forward then, arms still loosely folded, like she was watching her favorite scene in a movie she’d seen a hundred times. “He didn’t have to do much,” she said, almost cheerfully. “I took care of it. Little things, here and there, when you weren’t looking. Enough to make sure she wouldn’t survive.” She tilted her head, eyes bright. “I already gave him a healthy child. Lena. Why would he need another one from you?” Mara felt her knees buckle slightly before she caught herself. “You killed my baby,” she said. It came out hollow. Barely a whisper. But it was the clearest thing she’d ever said. Vivienne didn’t flinch. “She would’ve only been another problem,” she said softly. “Just like the first one.” Twenty years. Twenty years of loving a man who had been living a completely different life. Twenty years of grief and exhaustion and quiet hope, all while they both watched her bleed and break and keep trying. All of it… for nothing. “Was I really just…” Mara’s throat closed up. She forced the rest out anyway, voice trembling. “Was I really nothing to you? The whole time?” Daniel looked at her for a long moment. Really looked. Then he said it, simple and calm: “Yes.” Mara let out a short, broken laugh that sounded nothing like her. She pressed her hand over her mouth, eyes wide and wet. “Okay,” she whispered from behind her fingers. “Okay…” She didn’t know what came next. She couldn’t even think that far. Then she felt it. A hard shove from behind it was so sudden she didn’t have time to process it. Her feet scrambled desperately at the edge, finding nothing but air. Her hands grabbed at nothing. “Daniel…!” She was already falling. The last thing she saw clearly was Vivienne’s calm, satisfied smile shrinking above her as the rooftop disappeared, the city lights rushing up to meet her, the wind roaring in her ears like a scream. In that spinning, weightless second before everything ended, Mara thought of her daughter. The soft warmth of her tiny body.