Caro didn't remember leaving Peter's office properly. It wasn't a clean exit, not something her mind could register in steps or movements. It felt more like she had been pushed out of a space she wasn't fully ready to leave, her body moving while her thoughts stayed trapped behind, still replaying his final words. "From you." The phrase echoed again and again in her mind, each repetition cutting deeper not because of anger, but because of how empty it had sounded when he said it.
She stopped near the corridor wall, one hand pressing lightly against the surface as if she needed something solid to remind her she was still standing. Her breath came uneven, shallow, and she whispered without meaning to, "Why does it always feel like I'm the one breaking everything?" Her voice didn't carry far, but it didn't need to. The weight of the question was already crushing her from within, tightening in places she could no longer control.
