Pāhonoa te oro

As she moved through the room that night, greeting familiar faces and trying to steady her thoughts, she began to sense that something wasn’t aligning with her expectations. Conversations felt restrained, eye contact lingered a second too long, and there was an underlying tension that didn’t match the celebratory atmosphere she had envisioned. At first, she questioned her own perception, assuming that nerves were influencing her interpretation of the situation. But as time passed and Daniel rema