The memory kept coming back not all at once, but in shards that cut sharp and unfinished, unsettling in how raw they felt. A single voice echoing, a scream breaking through, and beneath it all a fear so deep that her chest constricted every time it surfaced. Alessia didn’t hesitate; she pushed the door open without knocking.
Rafael looked up immediately, as if he had been waiting for her to arrive, as though he already knew what she was about to say. Her pulse quickened beneath that gaze. “Tell me the truth,” she demanded, her voice firm and without any pretense.
The room filled with silence thick and heavy, loaded with tension. Rafael stayed still, words caught like stones in his throat, but something shifted in his eyes: not surprise, but recognition. That alone caused Alessia’s chest
