For a long moment, they simply looked at each other, the walls between them crumbling. Suzanne's resolve wavered. She wanted to believe him, to believe in them. But the truth was still out there, waiting to be uncovered.
"I'll try," she whispered, the weight of the decision settling over her.
Andrei squeezed her hands, a flicker of hope in his eyes. "That's all I ask."
But as they sat there, bound by a fragile truce, the storm outside the house was only beginning to brew. And the secrets they thought they could bury were about to resurface with a vengeance.
The next morning, Suzanne woke early, the weight of her conversation with Andrei still pressing on her chest. She needed space to think, to process everything he had said. Throwing on a sweater, she slipped out of the house and into the gardens, the crisp morning air doing little to clear her swirling thoughts.
