EPISODE 1
The first thing I noticed was the silence. Not the kind I’d grown used to all my life, but the hollow kind–the kind that followed devastation.
I blinked at the ceiling, unfamiliar and sterile. My hands moved instinctively to my belly, the place where life had once stirred. Now, there was only stillness.
Daniel sat beside the bed. His golden eyes flickered as he noticed the movement. Calm collected, he reached for my hand and signed gently, “Maurice… the baby didn’t survive.”
His voice, though soft, echoed too clearly in my mind. I heard every word. It was strange still being able to hear after so many years of silence. I should’ve cherished this miracle. But now it felt like a curse–because it let me hear the lies too.
I didn’t react. My gaze drifted to the window instead, to the pale sky beyond. No tears came. My heart was too hollow to cry.
Daniel gave me a practiced smile. “You should return to your family for a while. The change might help.”
I nodded, just once. Enough to ease his suspicions.
But the truth was already set in stone.
Yesterday, everything changed.
–
The morning before the fall, I had rushed to find Daniel, my heart bursting with joy. For the first time in years, I could hear ågain. I was whole.
I wanted to tell him everything–to hear his voice, to experience our love in a way I never could
before.
I followed the sound of his voice down the hall, a voice I once only imagined. But as I neared the closed room, his words turned from sweet to sinister.
“She’s pregnant again,” Daniel said flatly. “That’s why I’ve added more of the herb. This one won‘ last either.”
A second voice answered–one that turned my stomach to stone.
My father’s.
“Good. Helen is stable now. She’ll need everything we can give her.”
“We only need one heir,” he added with a laugh. “And it certainly won’t come from that broken girl.”
I didn’t feel the tears until they fell. My knees weakened, and I clung to the wall to stay upright. The door creaked open. Daniel stepped out. For a second, shock passed over his face, but it vanished quickly. His smile returned, calm and comforting.
“Maurice,” he signed. “Are you okay?”
I gave him a gentle, clueless smile and nodded. No sign that I’d heard a thing. No sign of the storm brewing inside me.
My father passed behind him, eyes sharp beneath his warm smile.
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8:42 pm
“You should lie down, my dear,” he said in a tone coated with false concern.
I nodded again, my mouth dry.
Back at the packhouse, Daniel tried to pretend nothing had happened. He poured me a drink in the kitchen–his usual blend of tea and something darker. Something bitter. I had trusted it before. But now…
Now I knew what it was.
He handed it to me, smiling gently. “Drink,” he said. His voice was soft, coaxing.
I took the cup, lifted it to my lips, then paused. I shook my head with a smile, gesturing that the scent made me feel sick.
“Maurice…” he signed again. “You need to.”
I knocked the cup from his hands.
It hit the floor and shattered.
A beat of silence. Then another.
His eyes darkened, the warmth gone. He stepped forward, looming. My instincts screamed to run, but I froze, calculating.
Then I stepped backward–and there was nothing.
I fell hard, the lower level of the house catching me in a cruel embrace. Pain bloomed instantly through my body. My stomach convulsed. Warmth spread beneath me–hot, wet, metallic.
I screamed. But only in my mind.
The world tilted as my vision blurred. The scent of blood overwhelmed everything.
Not again. Not this one.
And then the darkness pulled me under.
Now, awake and broken, I could see clearly.
Daniel’s lies. My father’s betrayal. The quiet role Helen had played, innocent to all, or perhaps
not.
But I wouldn’t give them what they wanted.
Let them think I was weak. Let them believe the herbs had broken my body.
Tomorrow, I would leave.
And when I returned, I wouldn’t come back as their pawn.
I would return as the storm.
EPISODE 1
