Erick
“You happened to us, Erick. You.”
Her words hit me harder than any blade ever could.
For a moment, I sat frozen, my body unmoving, my breath stalled in my chest.
The words echoed inside my head, sharp and unrelenting.
What did she mean?
How could she say that?
My chest tightened as though the walls of the room were closing in.
“I leaned forward, searching her face, desperate for clarity. “Sophia…” I began, my voice lower than I intended. “What do you mean by that?”
It came out more like a plea than a demand.
I rose slightly from my seat, an instinctive urge to close the distance between us, to hold her shoulders, to shake the answer out of her if I had to.
But before I could take more than a step, her hand shot up, palm outward, stopping me cold.
The gesture was small
