For three long months, Melody had been living within the secluded walls of "Harmony Haven for Women and Infants."
Each day brought her closer to the anticipated arrival of her baby, and she immersed herself in the routines of the community.
Loneliness became her constant companion, a suffocating presence that wrapped itself around her like a tight-fitting garment. In the quiet of the night, as she lay in bed, her heart pounded with a heavy ache, confined within the limited space that loneliness had allowed.
On one particularly sweltering night, unable to bear the weight any longer, she cast off her quilt and descended the stairs in a hushed escape to the backyard.
There, she stood under the open sky, shaking her limbs and contorting her body, as if trying to shed the relentless grip of loneliness. It clung to her like a second skin, constricting her breath and draining the very air she needed to thrive.
