***Raizel***
The door closed behind me with a soft click that felt far too final.
I stood in the corridor for a moment, my hand still resting on the handle, unable to move. The weight in my chest had grown so heavy I could barely breathe around it.
Cadiz didn't trust me anymore.
Why would he? After months of avoidance, months of cold distance, suddenly showing concern now must feel like the worst kind of hypocrisy. I could see it in his eyes when I stood there with Karl, suspicion, wariness, the complete absence of hope.
There had been a time, brief and fragile, when his face would light up at even the smallest gesture from me. A conversation started over breakfast, a question about his day. Those tiny moments when I let my guard slip just enough for him to see I cared.
His eyes would soften then, just slightly, like he was letting himself believe, just for a second, that maybe things could be different.
Now there was nothing.
