The world outside carried on, distant laughter from people walking outside, the faint hum of a passing car but inside this room, it all felt muted, as though sound itself had been swallowed whole. Daisy's fingers curled into fists at her sides, the sharp sting of her nails in her palm the only proof she hadn't already frozen solid.
She told herself to breathe. To speak. To move.
But then his shadow dipped closer, brushing against hers, quiet and suffocating. "So… what do you say?"
Daisy's chest tightened. Her voice came out soft but steady. "Love isn't about dragging someone where they don't want to go. If it's forced… then it isn't love. What I had with Theo, that is love. Simple. Free. That's all it should be."
