Hushed Willows we used to be close but people can go from people you know to people you don’t

It hurt so, so much. She had come to these shores more than a year ago to build her life with Njord and it was as though none of it meant anything now. Of course she knew there were complexities and nuances, particularly with Njord, but it felt like she had never mattered. And it was truly a gut-wrenching feeling.

Then the sadness began twisting into something else. She was quite likely pregnant. The thing she had wanted most was now a source of abject fear. Would they be able to make a home and support these unborn children? She still wanted them, fiercely, but she needed to make sure they were happy, healthy and safe.

Her sides ached with the relentless weeping. She gulped in a breath, tried to put a stop to the paroxysms. Meerkat didn’t have the remotest inkling of either man’s approach until one literally seemed to fall from the sky at her feet, startling the woman into looking up and seeing them both.

She must be quite the spectacle, her eyes swollen, every facial orifice leaking. What must Val in particular think of her right now? Had he come here to berate her too? She choked out another low wail.