Says something. About her.
And I don’t know what the hell to do with that.
She fidgets, brushing her thumb along her wrist. Another bruise marks her pale skin, half hidden.
There are a million things I could ask. But only one that won’t leave me alone.
“Can I ask you something?” I keep my voice low, careful not to shatter the fragile thread holding her together.
She nods, not quite meeting my eyes.
I take a beat. Choose my words.
“You don’t seem like someone who wants the life they’ve mapped out for you.” I pause. “The silence. The rules. The marriage.”
Her breath stutters. Barely audible.
“I’m just wondering…” I exhale. “Why stay?”
Her eyes flick up.
Like I just cracked open a box she’s never dared to touch.
“I’ve never…” she starts, voice shaking. “No one’s ever asked me that.”
I nod slowly. “Doesn’t mean you don’t have an answer.”
Her silence this time isn’t empty. It’s full. Stuffed with words she doesn’t know how to say.
Yet.
So, I keep talking.
“My tattoos,” I say, rolling up my sleeve a little. “They all mean something. Some are stories. Others are reminders.”
Her eyes track the ink again, slower this time. Like she’s reading a language she doesn’t speak but still feels.
“Most people think it’s rebellion. Decoration.” I smirk, faint. “But every line of ink covers something else. A memory. A scar.”
I glance down at the skull inked into the back of my hand.
“Because under all this…” My voice lowers. “I carry real ones.”
Her gaze sharpens. She listens.
“My dad,” I say, throat tight, “He thought pain was the only way to teach anything worth remembering.”
She stiffens. Barely. But I see it. Feel it.
“Wasn’t until I got out that I realized he was wrong.”
The church creaks around us, the building itself groaning beneath the weight of all our ghosts.
“I don’t know everything you’ve been through,” I tell her. “But I know what it feels like to live in someone else’s version of who you’re supposed to be. And what it costs when you finally choose yourself.”
I rest my arms on my knees, glance sideways.
“So maybe the question isn’t why stay, Seraphina.” I pause.
