"What do you think?" Ren asked.
"Too delicious, as always," Miya replied.
That morning Miya was happy, very happy, more than usual. Her eyes shone with an intensity that Ren found difficult to ignore.
"That's good, I'm glad." The smile Ren showed not only softened the atmosphere, but also the question that would come next.
"And… how is your brother?"
During those days filled with doubts, Ren had started wanting to know his wife better, even in the details he had once overlooked.
Miya, who until then had not interrupted her meal, suddenly stopped. The spoon remained suspended right in front of her lips.
Carefully, Miya slowly turned her head and drew an exaggerated smile on her face.
"Working. My poor brother never gets tired. Aaaahhh… I wish he would rest at least once in his whole life. I told him a few days ago to take a vacation, but he doesn't listen to me."
Ren became thoughtful at Miya's answer.
"You're right, he should rest," he replied with a nervous laugh.
After finishing eating, Miya stood up from the table lightly.
"I'm going out for a few hours to do some shopping. Do you want anything?"
"No, nothing," Ren replied.
Miya smiled and raised a finger, as if she were explaining something obvious.
"Even if you tell me that, I'll bring you something. It doesn't matter if it's big or small."
After saying that, Miya left while humming to herself.
Seeing that he was alone, Ren began washing the dishes and organizing the trash that had piled up the day before.
When he picked up the bags to leave them outside, one of them, smaller than the others but the same black color, fell in front of him.
Ren bent down to pick it up and put it back in place, but he stopped.
The bag made a strange sound.
It wasn't the soft noise of food scraps, but something dry, metallic, as if small pieces were colliding with each other.
Ren opened the bag to see what was inside.
At that moment, all the thoughts about what he had to do that day disappeared.
"What is this…?"
Inside were dozens of empty pill blisters, of different sizes and brands.
A chill ran down Ren's spine.
Seeing so many pills together was not normal. That couldn't be a coincidence. There had to be a medical problem, something that explained such a quantity.
Ren swallowed.
Trying to think about whose pills they could be, he realized it was absurd, since in that house only two people lived:
Ren closed the bag and went inside the house. His pulse throbbed in his temples as he dropped himself into a chair. His feet trembled without him being able to control them because of the anxiety.
Knowing why that was there was eating away at him; he needed an answer. Maybe Miya was sick, maybe there was something he didn't know.
He couldn't stay still.
He took a few blisters and went straight to his cellphone. He searched the name and, when he read the description, the air he had been holding escaped in a slow sigh.
The first pill he checked was a muscle relaxant, also used to calm anxiety and help with sleep.
"That makes sense for this pill," he murmured.
But there wasn't only one.
There were many more. With different names and different blisters. He picked up another, then another one. With each reading, the calm he was trying to maintain crumbled a little more. This no longer looked like a common treatment. They were not simple occasional pills.
Ren didn't know what to do.
Then he heard the door.
Miya had returned.
With a clumsy movement, he hid the blisters.
Ren felt a blow in his chest when Miya entered the kitchen.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
Ren forced a nervous laugh.
"No… I'm just very tired. I think I'll go to sleep now."
Miya observed him carefully. Her doubtful gaze made it clear she didn't fully believe him.
"Aren't you going to see what I brought you?" Miya said, tilting her head slightly.
Ren, who was already about to leave the kitchen, replied without turning around:
"Not today… tomorrow."
Carefully, Ren headed toward the bedroom, trying not to make noise. When he arrived, he lay down and covered himself with the blanket.
Like a ghost lying there, he said,
"This isn't right."
Ren, with the cellphone in his hand, began to investigate. Among the names he had seen before, one left him frozen when he read the description displayed on the screen.
"Pill to prevent pregnancy."
Ren's pulse quickened. Without getting out of bed, he researched the development of a pregnancy week by week.
At the beginning of the research, everything seemed to fit with what Miya was experiencing, from cravings to mood swings, with emotions always close to the surface. But there was something that didn't appear anywhere.
The belly.
At sixteen weeks it should already be noticeable. And he had seen nothing.
Ren tried to organize his thoughts, but the sound of the bedroom door opening interrupted him.
"Ren, don't you want to take a pill for the tiredness?" Miya asked from the entrance.
Ren didn't respond. He remained motionless, his gaze fixed on the dark cellphone screen.
"Are you already asleep, Ren?"
Silence.
Miya sighed.
"You really were very tired… well, I'll go."
Miya's footsteps were heard moving away through the hallway, followed by the dry sound of the door closing.
Ren released the air he had been holding and, carefully, sat up in the bed.
He didn't know what to do.
He needed more information, clear answers, but he didn't dare ask Miya out of fear.
Ren turned his gaze toward the door to check if it was closed, but instead he found Miya standing there, motionless, with a dark smile.
She hadn't left. She had never done so.
Ren remained paralyzed with his eyes wide open while he heard Miya speaking with a very sweet voice.
"Did you wake up already, Ren?"
Chapter 32: A Door Not to Cross