"I wish she could have lived. The woman I loved."
Elise felt her pulse quicken as the weight of Roderick's confession settled in the car.
The air between them was thick, layered with unspoken pain, grief, and a sense of loss that made her heart ache. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, unsure of what to say.
How could she comfort him when she herself was drowning in her own turmoil?
"That's... hard to imagine," Elise finally whispered. "Living with that kind of pain, for so long."
Roderick let out a bitter laugh, the kind that seemed to come from deep within. "You get used to it. Or you think you do. It's like a shadow that follows you everywhere, always lurking. You can't outrun it, no matter how fast you try to move on."
