She was the backbone of a broken family. Always working. Always giving. She paid the bills, fed her siblings, reminded her mother to breathe.

Then came Mael, the firefighter with ash-stained hands and the softest voice she’d ever heard. He married her without hesitation, knowing her love came wrapped in exhaustion.

“I can help,” he said.

But she never let him. “They need me more.”

So she worked. And worked. And worked.

Until today.

Mael found her slumped in the bathroom. Feverish. Pale. Still trying to stand.

“I’m okay,” she whispered.

“You’re not,” he said, kneeling beside her.

She smiled—tired, cracked—and closed her eyes. And Mael, who’d faced fire and chaos, suddenly realized:

This was the first time he truly felt helpless.