Pāhonoa te oro

Because leaving would mean accepting something she wasn’t ready to believe. She replayed everything in her mind. Their last conversation. His laugh. The way he looked at her like she mattered. Like she was the only person in the world. None of it felt fake. None of it felt like a lie. So she waited. Another message. “Is everything okay?” No response. Her heart began to sink, slowly at first, then all at once. That quiet, creeping feeling that something wasn’t right.