Chapter 57: The Long Night
The first night Lily was home, she didn't sleep.
Maya found her sitting in the dark, curled up on the couch, her knees drawn to her chest. The moonlight came through the window, pale and silver, casting long shadows across the floor. She looked so small. So young. So lost. Her face was streaked with tears, her eyes red and swollen. She looked like she'd been crying for hours, like she'd run out of tears and was just sitting in the hollowed-out space they'd left behind. Maya's heart clenched at the sight, a familiar ache spreading through her chest. She'd been there before. She knew what it felt like to be so hollow that even tears felt like too much effort. She knew the weight of wanting to disappear, of not knowing how to ask for help. She knew the fear of bei
