Chain of Deceit

e room, illuminating the peaceful features of the child she had fought so hard to bring into the world. The rise and fall of

it d

round to know it was Takeshi. She felt his presence

as quiet, rough with exhaustion.

fingers brushing against

he best husband lately. I just... I feel like I'm failing at everything. At being a hu

t quite name. Regret? Guilt? Or was it something else entirely? She wanted to believe in his words, i

espond, a soft kno

hi called, tu

cene-Miyako holding the baby, Takeshi kneeling beside her. A mome

you?" he asked, his vo

ly a second before no

ing she hadn't seen in a long time. Hope. A flicker of it, l

lding their child, that Miyak

nged to Harumi. He had married Miyako, he had built a life with her, but his heart had always been elsewhere. She had seen it

ake her father love her, everything to make herself irreplaceable. But in th

er there, o

. This would not be her life. She refused to be a woman

she made h

things wit

ething that belonged to her alone. But it was also a lie, just like her

Miyako would no longer fight for somethi

Year

t, his features sharp like his father's, his presence commanding even as a chil

n she r

ru

egance, her every movement exuding the confidence of a woman who knew her place

t time had changed her. There was no softness left, no remnants of the

e, and for the briefest

ked past her-st

he sm

ed. This wasn't the s

ad returned f

she had come for Takeshi..