I was sitting in the women’s clinic waiting room, holding my appointment slip with slightly sweaty hands. The walls were covered in posters about prenatal classes and fertility testing. I kept glancing around nervously, trying to calm the mix of excitement and fear twisting in my stomach. After everything I’d been through, this appointment felt like the first step into a new life. I was scrolling through my phone when it happened. A voice I never wanted to hear again ripped through the room like nails on a chalkboard. “Well,

The Name That Changed Everything I woke up before the sun. The house was quiet. Everyone was still asleep. But I was already in the kitchen, fighting with the iron, trying to smooth out the last wrinkle on Lucas’s new school shirt. His first school shirt. Today was a big day—his very first day of first grade. I wanted everything to go perfectly. Even though, truthfully, nothing in our life felt perfect anymore. I peeked into the living room. Travis, my husband, was passed out on the couch again. The

On my birthday, I sat at a cozy table for two with candles flickering gently in front of me—alone, again. For the third year in a row, my husband Mark didn’t show up. Three birthdays, three no-shows, and always some excuse. But that night, something inside me snapped. I was done. I told him it was over. The corner booth where I sat was my favorite—tucked away just enough to feel private, but near a window so I could watch people walking by. The brick walls seemed to trap in