**DEREK POV**
I understand immediately what almost happened.
Not in fragments. Not in hindsight. The awareness hits me whole, sharp and complete, the instant the door slams open and the sound cracks down the hallway like a report. It doesn’t arrive gently. It doesn’t wait to be examined. It lands fully formed and undeniable, stripping away every narrative I built to contain it.
There’s no denial reflex.
No instinct to soften it or justify it or reframe it into something manageable.
The truth lands with a clarity that leaves no room for interpretation.
I crossed a line.
Not an abstract one. Not a theoretical boundary I can debate later in private. A real one, physical and immediate, close enough that I can still feel the echo of it buzzing through my nerves, like heat lingering after
