The week moved slowly almost like time was deliberately dragging itself forward, stretching every minute into something heavier than it should be.
Mia had returned to school on Tuesday with the same warm smile, the same patient tone, and the same gentle hands that tied shoelaces and passed out snacks. But inside, something had begun to unravel.
Or maybe... it was starting to wake up.
She'd avoided Rosa again that morning, unable to stand the familiar eyes that would read her too easily. Rosa had always been her safe place, but Mia wasn't ready to be seen like that. Not yet. She couldn't afford to fall apart in front of someone who loved her like a daughter.
Her students, on the other hand, saw only what she gave them. And they gave back without realizing what they were healing.
"Ms. Mia," one little boy whispered as he handed her a picture, "I drew you and me in a spaceship."
"Oh?" she smiled. "Why a spaceship?"
"Because I want to go to space. But I don't wanna go alone."
Something in her heart pinched. He wasn't her child, but she still felt fiercely protective of him in that moment. Of all of them. The clumsy, toothless, wide-eyed love they gave was pure. Innocent. It made her ache in ways she was only beginning to understand.
She hadn't been able to stop thinking about Janelle's ridiculous suggestion.
"Get pregnant."
It had seemed so absurd in the moment laughable, impossible. But the longer the silence stretched in the halls of her home, the more it clung to her like a second skin.
And then there was Elena.
Mia couldn't forget the older woman's eyes shining with hope as she asked, "When are you going to give me grandbabies?"
She hadn't even realized how hard the question had hit her until she lay awake that night, staring at the ceiling, tears soaking into her pillow.
Elena had no idea.
No idea that her son had barely kissed her. No idea their marriage was built on obligation and quiet longing-one-sided and fading.
And yet, deep down, Mia wanted that dream. Not just for Elena.
For herself.
A child. A baby that would love her back, unconditionally. Someone she would nuture, care for. love. protect even when everything fell apart. .
She thought again about what Elena had said, "That's why women go ahead and get pregnant."
That same bold, brash advice echoed Janelle's too: "Get pregnant."
Maybe it wasn't madness. Maybe it was bravery.
She knew that she would be a good mother. She would pour her entire soul into that child. Wrap them in warmth and tenderness. She would raise them strong and sweet and kind, and they would never feel unloved.
And if Damian walked away?
Then so be it.
There were plenty of women who raised amazing, brilliant children without a man beside them. Strong women. Gentle warriors.
And she could be one of them.
On Wednesday afternoon, she stopped by a small corner store on her way home to grab some snacks for her class. As she turned into the aisle near the baby wipes, she saw a woman juggling two laughing toddlers, chubby, soft, squealing as their mother tried to keep them still long enough to open a juice pouch.
Mia froze. Was this another sign that she should go ahead with the thoughts crowding her head.
One of the babies giggled and looked right at her, waving his tiny fingers like he recognized her. The other reached toward her with sticky hands. Mia blinked, smiled... and something inside her cracked open.
She bought her snacks, walked back to her car, sat behind the wheel and cried quietly for a long time.
But for the first time all week, her last thought wasn't of pain. It wasn't of rejection. Or loss. Or his cold words at the gala.
It was of something else.
Something... hers.
Maybe I should just do it, she thought as she curled under the sheets that night. Make myself happy. Take something back.
He got everything he wanted from this marriage. Why shouldn't I?
And for the first time in days, Mia fell asleep with a small, wistful smile on her face... ...imagining what her baby would look like.
Damian pov
Damian sat in his corner office, staring at the numbers on his screen but not truly seeing them.
Mia hadn't been home much this week.
Correction: she had, but their paths hadn't crossed. It was strange. For the past year, she'd always been there. Soft footsteps in the hall. The faint smell of vanilla . That melodic hum she always carried in the mornings, as if she were trying to make peace with silence.
But this week?
Nothing.
He'd come home late most nights, and she'd already be gone by the time he woke up. No Rosa mentions of her whereabouts. No awkward encounters at breakfast. No sound of her voice echoing down the stairwell.
He should be relieved.
Instead, it bothered him.
His mind, annoyingly, kept flicking back to the gala.
She'd looked... different that night.
He hadn't expected the effect it would have on him, the dress hugging her in all the right places, her hair pinned up in a soft twist, her eyes shimmering with hope. For a brief second, when he first laid eyes on her from across the ballroom, he'd forgotten it was her.
And then remembered too quickly.
They hadn't even spoken the entire night.
And then came that conversation with his mother.
"You didn't even look at her all night," Elena had said, pulling him aside near the end of the event, her voice sharp with disappointment.
"She left early," he muttered, brushing her off.
"Because you made her invisible."
"She knows what this is," he snapped.
"Do you?" Elena hissed, eyes blazing. "Because one day, you'll look around and realize you lost someone that would have given you everything."
He scoffed. "Mother-"
"Don't 'mother' me," she said, gripping his arm. "You keep telling me to stop asking about grandbabies-but you're not getting any closer with the way you treat her. You think time waits for your cold ambition? It doesn't. And Mia won't wait forever."
"Good," he said, too harshly. "Because she shouldn't have to. This was never a marriage of love. You know that."
Her face crumpled in fury. "You really don't deserve her."
He didn't respond.
Because maybe... she was right.
Now, sitting at his desk, Damian tapped a pen against his palm, eyes dark and distant.
She hadn't been around. He hadn't seen her.
He told himself it didn't matter. In a few months, it would all be over. The divorce would go through. His father couldn't stop him now. He had what he needed. The merger had been finalized. The company was thriving. And Mia... Mia was never part of the long game.
And yet...
She haunted him.
Her softness. Her quiet devotion. The way she had looked like a stranger in that ballroom, and yet something in him had noticed her like never before.
It irritated him how much space she took up in his head.
Especially when he'd spent so long pretending she didn't exist.