SARAH
If only Aria understood what she meant to me... how far I'd go to keep it that way.
The room didn't fall silent; it folded in on itself. A heavy, living quiet that pressed against my skin until every breath in the ballroom felt like it belonged to me. Two hundred people caught mid-inhale, waiting, watching, sensing the fracture before it appeared. I kept my hand loose on the microphone, because if I didn't, they'd see it... the tremor, the truth.
The first thing I looked for was her.
Aria.
Her expression shifted in increments so slow they almost defied time. The color drained first, then her lips parted, a tremor of breath leaving her as if the air itself had betrayed her. She looked weightless, as though the ground beneath her had quietly disappeared. Even from the stage I could see the pulse at her throat, beating in small, desperate rebellion.
Then came Kael.
