I stood frozen, the familiar echo of Luis’s laughter fading into the distance. The polished marble floor beneath my feet felt cold, grounding me as I watched Detective Hayes step forward. His every movement was deliberate, and calculated, and his expression was calm, almost too calm—as though he had been waiting for this exact moment, as if the weight of this confrontation had been preordained. I could almost taste the tension in the air, thick and heavy like smoke curling around me.
I turned my gaze back toward him, watching him step forward with a slow, deliberate pace as if every movement had been carefully thought out in advance. Something was unnerving about the way he moved, his presence filling the space between us with an almost unnatural weight. His expression was calm—too calm.
