I married my 80-year-old neighbor to save his house… and then I got pregnant and his family came for bl00d

after that call, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath.

I got out of bed carefully so I wouldn’t disturb him, crossed the cool tile floor, and stepped onto the little covered veranda that faced the courtyard. The air smelled of damp earth and lemon leaves. The bougainvillea along the far wall was dark and still.The iron bench beneath the tree looked almost black in the moonlight. This house had once been the safest place I knew. That night it felt like the center of a storm that had not yet arrived but was already named.

I was