The door slams behind them as they try to hide what is happening from you. You listen as the humming that was once a whisper turns into louder mumbles as their voices rise. They don’t know you can hear them, they are unaware of your existence on the other side of the door. It’s like two different worlds with one thin wall separating them. Salt filled tears roll down your cheeks and your bottom lip starts to quiver and drop. Your heartbeat speeds up, and you can’t control the rate at which you inhale and then exhale. You begin to panic. From head to toe, your body feels paralyzed with fear. You know what is going on, but you don’t want to believe that this nightmare has become your reality.

The door opens, and they walk past you still unaware that you are sitting there. There is no longer a wall separating the two worlds that have just become one. What you overheard still hasn’t been mentioned, everyone pretends like nothing is going on, like it’s no big deal, as if you haven’t noticed. The guilt builds up inside you, you start to believe that everything is your fault, that it’s all happening because of you. At this point still a family of three, but almost a family of two. Their relationship held together by the thinnest piece of string which if tugged with the smallest force will fracture into two sections.

Those two sections remodeled into two homes, two families, no longer all together as one.