The afternoon sun had softened into gold by the time Daniel pulled the car up to the entrance of Marian’s hotel. The glass façade reflected the fading light, casting shimmering fragments across the hood of his car. For a long moment, neither of them moved. The air felt suspended — heavy with unspoken truths, unresolved hurt, and the fragile possibility of something new rising from ruins neither of them fully understood yet.
Marian’s fingers toyed with the strap of her bag, her gaze fixed forward but unfocused — as if she was looking not at the hotel doors, but through time itself. Five years ago. Five years of silence, distance, ache. And now here they were, sitting inches apart, yet separated by a canyon built from betrayal.
Daniel broke the silence first.
“Thank you for agreeing to ha
