It wasn't a tearful goodbye when Florian stood before the Thornfield family—also known as the original Florian's family.
Not really.
If anything, it left a hollow kind of disappointment in his chest.
He had invited them with hope. With the quiet wish that, somehow, he could return with them.
That he could give the original Florian at least this much—for his family to be whole again, for things to feel normal, even just for a while.
But thanks to Asher—and Heinz—that was no longer possible.
'I invited them for nothing,' Florian thought bitterly. 'I really did.'
Leticia, his mother, was the hardest to part with.
She was openly torn apart by the idea of leaving him behind. She clutched his hands, told him again and again that he could come home anytime, that Thornfield would always be his home.
And through all of it, she very pointedly ignored Heinz.
Florian noticed.
He also found it… oddly entertaining.
'Good for you, Mom,' he thought, almost fondly.
