The heavy walnut door clicked shut behind her, and the sudden, absolute silence of the grand hallway pressed down like a physical weight. Nina stood motionless for a long moment, her spine against the wood, her fingers curled around the cold brass handle. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, each breath shallow and ragged in the dim, amber-tinted corridor. The air itself seemed to hold its breath, waiting.
"Be his mother," she whispered to the empty space, the words tasting strange on her tongue. Her own voice sounded foreign, as if someone else had spoken… a woman braver than she felt, perhaps, or more foolish. "A legal binding. Marriage."
