The question hung between them like a fragile piece of glass—one wrong move and it would shatter into a thousand sharp, unforgiving pieces.
Marian’s voice had been controlled, carefully measured, but Daniel heard the tremor beneath the surface—a trembling note she fought to contain. She didn’t want to ask. She didn’t want to care. And yet she did. Her heart was still too entangled, too bruised, too familiar with his.
He could see it in the way she held her fork just a little too tightly, knuckles paling. In the way her breathing slowed, measuring every inhale, bracing herself for the possibility of another wound.
Daniel swallowed once, slow and deliberate, like a man standing on a cliff he’d already fallen from before.
“What did I tell her?” he repeated softly, giving himself no room t
