CHAPTER 35: NO MORE RUNNING
The silence that followed his words didn’t break immediately. It stretched, heavy and suffocating, wrapping itself around us like something alive. I could feel my pulse in my throat, steady but loud, each beat echoing the truth I could no longer ignore, we weren’t safe. Not here. Not anywhere. The illusion we had built, the quiet life we had tried so hard to protect, had been cracked open in a matter of minutes. And yet, as I stood there, looking at the man in front of us, I realized something else just as important. He hadn’t come to attack. He hadn’t come to take anything. He had come to warn us. And warnings, no matter how dangerous, always meant one thing, there was still time. Not much. But enough.
Paul didn’t respond right away. I could feel him thinkin
