**LILA POV**
The choice happens quietly.
There is no escalation. No argument that tips into heat. No moment where the air crackles and announces that something irreversible is about to happen. If there were, I might have stopped it. Drama gives you edges to push against.
This has none.
It happens in the lull after everything else has already been said. After the practical conversation that drifted where it shouldn’t have. After the misread stillness. After the boundary that was crossed and named and acknowledged.
After the point where walking away would have been clean.
I am aware the entire time that this is wrong.
That awareness sits in my chest like a steady, pulsing light. Not panic. Not fear. Clarity. The kind that doesn’t shout. The kind that waits patiently for you to do the
