~Sienna~

The lunch rush at the small restaurant three blocks from the office is a deafening. Hums of clinking silverware and chatter, but Elias and I sit in a secluded booth in the far corner, where the world feels pin-drop silent. I’ve spent so long guarding the truth like a physical weight in my chest that now, as I prepare to let it spill, my hands are trembling so hard I have to tuck them under the table.

Elias watches me, his expression patient but etched with a deep, lingering ...