Delia sat on the edge of her bed, the laptop open on her lap, the glow of the screen illuminating her face. It had been weeks since she’d last logged into her social media. The thought of seeing happy couples, perfect lives, or worse, anything related to Thomas, had been too painful to bear. But tonight, a strange impulse, a mix of curiosity and a morbid need to inflict pain on herself, had led her here.
She navigated to her messages, her heart pounding in her chest. The list of conversations populated, and her breath hitched. There, among the usual updates and greetings, were messages from two names that made her stomach clench: Samantha and Thomas.
She clicked on Samantha’s name first, her fingers trembling. The conversation was short, a single message timestamped a few days prior:
*S
