206. The Shame of MisjudgmentNova

The room is too quiet. Not the peaceful kind of quiet, no, the kind she has come to rely on over the years, the kind that allows her to think, to breathe, to rebuild.

This is different. This quiet presses. It lingers in the corners, settles into her chest, stretches across the space like something waiting to be acknowledged.

Nova lies on the bed, eyes open, unmoving, her body still wrapped in the same clothes she arrived in two days ago. She doesn’t remember ...