Absolute silence.
Not even the distant laughter from the banquet hall could break it.
Evin felt Bas stiffen beside her.
Slowly she turned her head and looked at him.
He was already looking at her.
And in that moment, she knew.
He hadn’t chosen to leave her.
Not freely.
And the shock in his face mirrored her own—
because neither of them had seen any of this coming.
The truth unfolding between them, searing and impossible to outrun.
In that moment, they both understood that nothing between them had ever really been their choice.
That maybe they had never actually had a choice.
That their story had always been held together by invisible strings,
pulled by hands that never intended to let them go.
Strings that were about to snap…
