Sonia’s POV
When his footsteps finally faded, I still didn’t move.
The silence he left behind was so heavy, I could almost feel it pressing down on my chest. It wasn’t victory that I felt, not pride or satisfaction, but something harder to name. Something jagged, that sat in my throat and wouldn’t go down.
I’d held the line. I’d proven to myself that I wasn’t a weakling, that I could choose myself over him, even when my entire body screamed to do otherwise. But the ache that followed, that quiet, unbearable ache, didn’t feel like triumph.
It felt like loss.
Molly was watching me carefully, perched on the edge of the bed, her brows drawn together. She didn’t say anything for a long while. Just let the silence stretch between us until the room felt smaller, the air tighter.
“You did th
