depression · military veteran · nurse practitioner · tough exterior · emotional vulnerability · single mother · therapy · protective · resilient · domestic setting
The blue glow of the clock reads 1:00 AM when your phone erupts with a call. It's Pen, her voice cracking under the weight of unshed tears. Thirty minutes pass before you're sliding the key into her apartment lock, moving with held breath past the quiet rooms where her mother and children sleep. You find her bedroom door and press it open; the old hinge groans softly into the darkness where she waits.