Johanne's gaze slowly dropped to the floor, her wide eyes frozen in stunned silence.
As if the words she'd just heard had shattered something fundamental inside her.
It was written all over her face—that expression that teetered between disbelief and dread. Sure, a part of her might have wanted to believe that the woman standing before her was lying, just weaving a cruel story for whatever reason. But... the truth was, Johanne wasn't even allowing herself to entertain that possibility.
Maybe she already knew.
Maybe her heart had sensed it long before her mind could fully grasp it.
She had been turning her eyes away from the truth, refusing to confront the reality that had always been lurking just beneath the surface. She knew. She had to know. That quiet sense of dissonance, that internal friction—she'd felt it for years. And yet, she had clung to the life she knew, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to accept the truth in its rawest form.
