Vengeful Desires

15-

Amirah sat on the weathered bench, shoulders hunched as she cradled the worn photograph against her chest like a fragile talisman. Her thumb traced the contours of the smiling cherub face frozen in time - those bright eyes, that infectious grin that always made her heart swell three sizes too big for her ribcage.

"So you signed the divorce papers?" Yun's voice drifted over from nearby, barely registering in Amirah's mind. "Do you regret anything?"

But Amirah was lost in studying every beloved detail captured in the faded photograph. All else fell away as she committed that precious smile to her memory once more - a smile she would never see in the flesh again.

Tears blurred her vision, but she made no move to brush them away. Here, in this dingy prison courtyard that passed for an exercise yard, she could mourn her lost child in the privacy of her own anguish. Even if just for a few fleeting moments, she could exist solely as a grieving mother rather than an inmate.

The scuff of approaching footsteps against the cracked pavement shattered her solitary reverie. Amirah tensed, shoulders drawing inward protectively as she clutched the photo tighter.

"Well, well...if it isn't Cellblock C's saddest little rich bitch."

Amirah didn't need to look up to recognize the voice - that grating, flinty noise could only belong to Han Lee, one of the yard's most notorious hard cases. Lee seemed to have crowned herself the new queen bee after Diaz got off her case a bit.

"That the kid you liked so much?" Lee jeered, clearly emboldened by Amirah's refusal to rise to the bait so far. "The one you went and got yourself locked up for killing?"

Jaw clenched tight enough to grind enamel, Amirah tucked the photograph into the breast pocket of her drab coveralls. She rose from the bench in a slow, controlled movement, using her hands to shield her eyes from the sun as she finally met Lee's beady-eyed sneer with a look of weary disdain.

"I don't want any problems, Lee," she stated in a toneless rasp. "Please, just leave me be."

Rather than wilting beneath the leashed intensity of Amirah's warning, Lee's lips peeled back in a revolting leer, revealing nicotine-stained teeth.

"Awww, why's that, Princess?" she simpered in an equally grating mockery of a coo. "Cat finally got your tongue? Or you just feeling too guilty to admit what a shitty parent you—"

Lee's taunting words were cut off abruptly as she caught sight of Yun approaching behind Amirah.

" Just back off , Han."

Lee smirked, unbothered. "Or what? She gonna get her daddy to have me jailed?" She scoffed derisively before flicking them both off and sauntering away, leaving a tense silence in her wake.

As the belligerent inmate departed, Amirah let out the breath she'd been holding in a shuddering rush. She turned to face Yun fully, exhaustion etching deep grooves around her mouth and eyes.

"You didn't need to do that," Amirah murmured, shaking her head slowly. "Lee's rants are harmless, really—"

"Don't," Yun cut her off firmly. "You've been through enough without taking shit from low-life vultures with no decency. I'm waiting for the day they realize you're the wrong one."

To that, Amirah simply scoffed with a wry smile and looked down at her shoes, bending to retie the laces.

"Nah, I'm not violent, unnie," she said flatly, not meeting Yun's gaze.

Yun studied her for a moment before replying, "You're a ticking time bomb, Osuoa."

She jerked her head towards the prison entrance. "Anyways, let's go before she comes back. Got lunch duty anyway, let's go."