Opened Wounds

I needed to speak to Charlotte, to address the heartache that was so clearly etched on her face.

Allison's voice escalated, slicing through the hum of the supermarket with a sharpness that made me flinch. "How can you leave us here for a barren woman!" she exclaimed, her words loaded with an accusation that reverberated down the aisles.

Her declaration stopped me cold. I spun around, facing her, my shock mirrored in the eyes of the onlookers who had overheard. "What's your problem, Allison? How could you say that?" I demanded, my voice a cocktail of disbelief and anger.

The air between us crackled with tension, shoppers pausing in their tracks to witness the drama. Allison's face was set, her eyes unyielding as she spat back, "That's what she is."

But I couldn't stand there, couldn't digest the cruelty in her words or the scene we were causing. I muttered to myself, "I don't have time for this," my mind racing with the need to find Charlotte, to apologize, to make things right.

Witho