Chapter 5: After the Poison
The hall was empty now, lights dimmed, chairs half-shifted, petals crushed under silence.
Daniel stood alone near the table where the glass had been.
Sara was preparing to leave when he spoke.
“Why did you stop me?”
She paused.
“For the same reason anyone would,” she said. “Because it was wrong.”
He nodded slowly, but didn’t look convinced that the answer was enough.
Sara added softly:
“Some people smile while they destroy you. That doesn’t make it less real.”
A long silence followed.
Then Daniel finally looked at her.
Not as a maid.
Not as someone beneath the moment.
But as the person who had changed everything.
Outside, the world kept moving.
Inside, nothing would ever feel the same again.
May you like
And the glass—empty now—sat untouched.
A reminder of how close the ending had almost come.
