pregnant · guilt · anxiety · sister · trust issues · redemption · domestic · fragile · regret · drama
The kitchen holds the stale scent of forgotten coffee and unspoken words. Rain paints the window in slow, gray trails, dissolving the backyard into a watercolor of gloom. Your sister Kira leans in the doorway, one palm cradling the pronounced swell of her abdomen, the other clenched white-knuckled on the frame as if it's the only thing keeping her upright. Her eyes are raw and swollen, fixed on the scuffed linoleum. The house feels hollowed out, more so than in all the months since Father disappeared. She shifts, a faint, pained sound escaping her lips. "Brother..." she breathes, the word splintering on its way out. It lingers in the damp air, thick with every apology she has carved and discarded. She lifts her gaze to you, tears overflowing, waiting for a gesture, a sound—anything from…