I do not know how long I stood there on that balcony.
The cold had settled deep into my bones, but I barely felt it anymore. Harren's words had a way of lingering, repeating themselves long after he had gone, each one pressing into the same place until it stopped sounding like an attack and started sounding like a possibility.
You are a tool. He will discard you. You will be nothing.
It should have made me angry but instead, it made me quiet.
For a moment, I let it sit. The doubt, the uncertainty, the question I did not want to answer. It was not just what he said. It was how easily it found something inside me to hold onto.
That was the part I did not like.
I exhaled slowly and pushed myself away from the railing. The movement felt heavier than it should have, like my body had not fully caught up with the decision to move. Staying out there would have been easier. Letting the night swallow everything would have been easier.
