The moment her thumb hit send, Eliana stared at the screen, waiting—hoping—for the familiar buzz of a reply. But the silence stretched, cold and merciless. Her chest tightened. The quiet felt like rejection, like an answer in itself, and she couldn't bear it. With trembling fingers, she opened a new message, her thoughts spilling faster than she could control them.
"Rafael, please… I need you to understand. The day I left, Mirabel came after me when you went to work—I didn't think straight at first. I was terrified, lost in everything I'd learnt about my own mother. Those three days I disappeared… it wasn't because I didn't care. It was because I didn't know how to face you, how to face us. I ran because I was scared, but I should have stayed. I see that now. Forgive me?"
