ZAYNE’s POV

They say therapy is supposed to make you lighter but all it did was dig up stones I’d buried years ago and stack them in my chest.

The office smelled like peppermint and paper, calm in a way that almost made me itch.

A bookshelf lined with psychology texts. A single plant by the window. Too clean, Too quiet.

The therapist… a woman in her late forties with kind, unreadable eyes crossed one leg over the other, notebook balanced on her knee.

“You’ve been circling the same ...