"This suffocating blanket of grief—will I ever be free from its crushing weight?"
Estelle’s eyes fluttered open, heavy with the residue of anaesthesia. She groaned, the light stabbing through her eyelids. A dull throbbing pain radiated through her bones, but it was the sharp, intense pain in her belly and legs that jolted her fully awake. She winced, her hand instinctively moving to her abdomen, fingers pressing against the bandages wrapped tightly around her stomach. Her heart lurched, and her eyes flew open, wide with confusion and fear.
Something is wrong.
She tried to sit up, but the IV tugged at her arm, and a wave of dizziness crashed over her, forcing her back down. She scanned the sterile white walls, the machines whose relentless beeps sent her head spinning, and the overpow
