{"id":26204,"date":"2026-01-06T14:06:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=26204"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:06:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:06:51","slug":"26204","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=26204","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

I went into autopilot. I made her favorite dinner\u2014macaroni and cheese with the expensive sharp cheddar she loved, and sliced Honeycrisp apples on the side. I plated it on her favorite dinosaur plate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere you go, Lils,\u201d I said, forcing a brightness into my voice that I didn\u2019t feel.<\/span><\/p>\n

She ate slowly. Methodically. Mechanically. There was no joy in the chewing, no humming, no swinging of legs under the table. She ate as if she were fueling a machine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That night, the darkness of her bedroom felt oppressive. I lay beside her, listening to the rhythm of her breathing, waiting for the hitch that would signal a nightmare. I stroked her hair, smelling the faint scent of her strawberry shampoo, masked by the lingering, cloying perfume of my mother\u2019s house.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, her breathing evened out. She slept.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could not.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went into autopilot. I made her favorite dinner\u2014macaroni and cheese with the expensive sharp cheddar she loved, and sliced Honeycrisp apples on the side. I plated it on her favorite dinosaur plate. \u201cHere you go, Lils,\u201d I said, forcing a brightness into my voice that I didn\u2019t feel. She ate slowly. Methodically. Mechanically. There…<\/p>\n

Read More “”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":158,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26209,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26204\/revisions\/26209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}