(Angela’s POV)
“Why did you say that, Angela? Why those words?”
The question slipped past my lips before I even realized I had let them loose. It lingered in the air, as though I expected the trees and shrubs around me to respond—or perhaps the faint rays of the rising sun. But no answer came, only the steady rhythm of my footsteps along the garden’s gravel route.
I had wandered here without planning to, leaving the study with a rush of breath heavier than the room I’d left behind. Now I stood in the garden, where the chirping of small birds and the scent of vegetables and trimmed grass wrapped around me like a blanket. Beneath the wide canopy of the mango tree, I could finally breathe.
I folded my arms, pressing them close as if to contain the restlessness unraveling inside me. My eye
