Her fists clenched tightly at her sides, nails biting painfully into her palms.
Her breathing came in shallow, uneven bursts as if the air itself had become too thick to swallow.
In front of her, the man she had spent years trying to forget stood with that same smug expression, as if the years apart had never happened—like the scars he left had never been carved into her skin.
No… this can't be real. Not him. Not here. Not now.
A cold wave of panic swept through her chest, drowning every ounce of calm she had fought so hard to reclaim.
She wanted to run.
Her mind screamed for her to turn away, to disappear before the nightmare consumed her again.
But her feet refused to move, frozen in place by the cruel irony of fate.
It felt like standing beneath a collapsing sky, waiting for the stars themselves to fall and crush what little hope she had left.
Her heart twisted painfully, as if invisible hands were wringing it dry, leaving nothing but hollow echoes of the woman she once was.
And then…
With a cold, practiced smile, he stepped closer and whispered just loud enough for her to hear—
"You didn't really think you could live happily without me… did you?"