r apartment, I collapsed on

all just a nightmare. Once I woke

fted back to the year my fat

dent then, and my family c

l handed over every dollar he h

e earned again, but you ca

re that I would spend the rest o

ures failed one after another

where sunlight barely reached, enduring on

oward paying off those debts,

hing more than a cheap meal from a small shop dow

was damp, and the corners

ad. I got your favorite b

side, watching me with the sa

e Daniel I

are had to

missed yo

f into his arms and breathed in the famili

gers through my hair, the warmth of h

his shirt had come undone. A vivid

ite. A d

stinctively as my re

icker of disgust crossed his eyes bef

stand one thing. My marriage to Emily is about family interests, nothing more. There are no

Making a fo

ooking calm on the surface, th

to change. Just think of yesterday as attending a frien

as still and lifeless as stagnant

eally go back to

ve me to the hospital in th

kissed my forehead ju

ing by still looke

of unreality w

s across the city yesterday. How could anyone in

d as though nothi

s trapped inside

hift ended, not a single pers

s greeted me cheerfully

shows up half an hour before your shift ends e

times I'd visited Daniel's company. Eve

le had carried the same polished perfectio

step. The hand that never trembled while ho

d. This had been a cage b

Before it wa