My mother refusing to meet my eyes.
The silence afterward.
God, the silence.
Tears slid quietly down my cheeks.
Not violent this time.
Not breaking apart.
Just heavy.
Like something buried deep inside me had finally gotten too tired to keep holding itself together.
Beside me, Ace stayed still.
Didn’t crowd me.
Didn’t fill the silence just to make it less uncomfortable.
He just sat there close enough that I could feel the warmth coming off him.
Steady.
Grounding.
And for the first time since meeting him—
that didn’t scare me.
I tipped my head back against the cabinet and stared at the ceiling.
“I don’t know what happens now.”
My voice sounded small in the quiet shop.
Ace glanced over at me. “Nothing has to happen today.”
A weak laugh escaped me.
“You make that sound simple.”
“It’s not simple.” His jaw tightened slightly. “But you don’t have to survive the next ten years tonight either.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“I should’ve fought harder.”
“No.”
The answer came fast enough to make me look at him.
“I should’ve told them everything,” I whispered. “I should’ve made them listen.”
“You were nineteen,” he said quietly. “And your best friend was dying.”
Emotion climbed hard into my throat again.
