Chapter 6: My Hope
>>Aelin (First year of marriage)
I sat on the window sill, a book in hand which I was trying to read but for some strange reason I couldn't quite get into it.
The loneliness in this room was something I could never quite get used to. No matter how many books I buried myself in, no matter how many pages I flipped, the silence always pressed in on me. The days blurred together. Some mornings I'd wake up with the vague hope that maybe, just maybe, something would change. But nothing ever did. The same routine. The same isolation. The same silence.
I was pacing around the room one day, some sort of anxiety swirling inside of me, when I felt something—a strange, sharp tug in my stomach. It was quick, like a pinch, and I stopped in my tracks.
Ah!
My first thought was that maybe I was getting my period.
I walked to the bathroom thinking about how I'd have to beg a maid to get me some cotton since they rarely ever listen to me. I sighed as I checked, hoping to see the familiar blood stain that would mean it was nothing to worry about.
But nothing.
My stomach churned. The blood wasn't there, but there was something else—a gnawing, uneasy feeling growing in my chest.
!!!
Wait,