What would you do if you knew someone that you loved, did you wrong?, knew that they were bad but you loved them, would you stay? Same thing Lilyanna asked herself when she caught Rayan with her best friend.

He said love in a voice like velvet, soft enough to wrap around her ribs but tight enough to crack them. She wore his promises like pearls- until they turned to choke. The door never slammed. It clicked. Like a secret kept too long. Her smile became a practiced thing, like folding napkins over broken glass. He touched her with hands that once held roses, now thorns. She learned to read the weather in his eyes- storm, hail, silence. And still, she stayed. Not for love, but for the memory of it. Until one day, she packed her name into a suitcase and left the echo behind. Now she walks with a limp of memory, but her voice- her voice is thunder.