And only now, watching her break down like a porcelain doll finally dropped, did he realize just how much she’d been holding back.

Rain hadn’t fallen that evening, but the pavement glistened faintly as if the sky itself had wept in silence. Streetlights bled their golden halos onto the damp stones, and a crowd had started to gather near the small park's edge, where sobs broke the quiet like glass shattering on marble.

There she was Linsy sitting on the stone ...