FAYE
The water had long since cooled, but I didn’t move. I just sat there in the bathtub, knees tucked close to my chest, watching the ripples fade as I shifted slightly. My mind was too loud to let me enjoy the bath anyway.
All day, the same images circled like vultures. The cold dungeon walls pressing in on me. The heavy chains. The guard’s eyes, too quick to look away. My own helplessness.
But above everything else, it was Alexander’s face I saw most vividly.
The way his eyes burned when he looked at me through those iron bars. Not with suspicion, not with accusation… but with something far fiercer. With anger, yes...but not directed at me.
He hadn’t even asked me for explanations. He hadn’t demanded I prove myself. The words had barely left my lips—I’m innocent—and he had simply
