Her mother's recovery stopped after her father died.
At first, Sonya noticed longer pauses between her words. Then came the nights when her mother could not sleep without coughing. The short walks she had managed inside their home became journeys from the bed to a chair, and eventually, even those stopped.
Their belongings disappeared a few at a time to pay for treatment. But they did not starve. The clan provided decent food, clothing, and enough basic necessities to keep them alive.
Those continued, but the medicine became harder to obtain.
Outside, the grief of losing her father earned Sonya no kindness. Nobody stopped her to offer comfort. Instead, she heard voices lower when she approached, then rise again when the speakers thought she had passed and could no longer hear them.
"Now she knows what losing someone feels like."
"After all the families she ruined, did she expect hers to be spared?"
