Nina stared at her phone for a long time.
Too long.
The screen had dimmed at least three times before she tapped it awake again, the blue light casting shadows across her face in the darkened room.
Her thumb hovered over Lucas's contact, trembling slightly.
She didn't press it.
Didn't move.
Just… stared, as if the name itself might offer some answer to the question she couldn't quite articulate.
A quiet breath escaped her lips.
This was ridiculous. It was just a call. Just a child… a boy who needed someone to check on him. And yet, her chest constricted, that familiar tightness wrapping around her ribs like a vice.
Because children… Children had always been something she avoided, kept at arm's length with polite smiles and careful distance.
Not out of dislike. Not out of indifference. But because of something far worse, something that lived beneath her skin like a second heartbeat.
Pain.
