CHAPTER 17: THE EDGE OF BREAKING
The scream hadn’t faded. It still lingered in the room; raw, cracked, unfinished—like it had torn something open that couldn’t be closed again.
No one moved. The gun was still pointed.
Still steady and soo visible to be real.
Arianna felt it before she could fully process it. The weight of it,and the certainty of it.
Her breath came in shallow pulls, her chest rising and falling too quickly despite how still she forced her body to remain.
Her eyes stayed on Laila.
“Why…?” The word slipped out soft and broken before she could stop it.
Tears had already gathered, blurring her vision, but she didn’t blink them away. She let them fall.
“Why is this happening to me?” she asked, her voice trembling now, the strength she had been holding onto finally cra
