The scent of blood still lingered in the air, mixed with dust and the sharp tang of broken glass. My boots crunched softly against the floor as I moved around the living room, silently picking up the shattered pieces.
I cleaned slowly. The mess wasn't just physical. It was a reflection of everything I had left behind... and everything that had rotted in my absence.
As I straightened up, my eyes caught the photo of my daughter on the wall. Aurora, smiling in a field of sunflowers, her arms outstretched toward a sky I wasn’t there to witness.
I walked toward it, my gaze frozen on that little face, so familiar and yet still foreign.
Ten years.
Ten damn years without seeing her.
I stared at the photo for a long moment before I finally reached up and gently took it down. I didn’t know if
