Silence didn’t just fill the room it settled into it, thick and suffocating, pressing in from every corner.
Alessia stood frozen, her breath shallow, uneven. Her chest rose and fell too quickly, like she had been running like she still was, even now.
Only there was nowhere to go.
No matter how far she ran, the truth would follow.
It already had.
Rafael didn’t move.
Didn’t speak.
But she felt him his presence, steady and unrelenting, like a weight behind her. Watching. Waiting.
Expecting something.
A reaction. A fight. Anything.
But she had nothing left to give.
Not after what he had taken from her.
Not after what he had forced her to see.
“You should have told me.”
Her voice came out quite not sharp, not angry.
Just tired.
Rafael’s jaw tightened, the only visible crack in h
