Some pain comes not from betrayal, but from years of being overlooked.
“…Zack? When you stopped living.”
The words hung in the air like dust in sunlight—visible, heavy, impossible to ignore.
He blinked. “What does that even mean?”
Kelly exhaled slowly, as if she had been holding her breath for years. “It means you were always… safe. Always careful. Always the same. You never hurt me, Zack. Not once. But you never saw me either.”
