I didn't respond, my heart raced.
Aaron exhaled calmly, he didn't push me after that.
Maybe he sensed the edge of my unraveling. Maybe he understood that if he pulled one thread too hard, the entire thing would collapse in his hands.
"We'll stop here for today," he said gently, glancing at the time. "You did more than enough."
Did I?
It didn't feel like enough. It felt like opening a door and then being told to leave the room before I could look around.
I stood slowly, my limbs heavy.
At the door, he paused.
"Alyssa," he said quietly.
I turned.
"What you went through wasn't drama."
The words settled somewhere deep and raw inside me.
I nodded once, unable to respond, and left before my composure betrayed me.
The house felt different when I returned.
Quieter.
Or maybe I was.
The sun was dipping low, staining the walls amber. I moved through the corridor slowly, aware of my own footsteps in a way I hadn't been before.
Believed.
The word followed me like a shadow.
