Chapter 142

DAHLIA

Jack’s voice lingered in my ear long after the line went silent.

‘Then come back and see for yourself.’

I stayed there—kneeling between two headstones—for a long, shaky minute, my breath a mess, my emotions all over the place. I wiped my face with trembling hands, though there was no point. I probably looked like I had been punched by the sky itself.

But Jack’s voice…

The steadiness in it.

The calm.

The certainty.

“None of us did. We’re all rooting for you.”

I didn’t know what that even meant. Why would they root for me? After everything they’d just heard?

But the words stuck.

Eventually, I stood. Weak. Heavy. But standing.

My legs carried me back to the road like I was on autopilot. I took a bus back to the restaurant, my mind racing, replaying every single look I thought I saw, every whisper I imagined, every judgment I felt burning into my skin.

When I finally stepped off the bus, my palms were s