-Blake West:
I lingered in the hallway long after the echo of Rina's footsteps disappeared down the stairs. The silence felt heavier than the words she had just flung at me, yet they kept circling back in my head like vultures picking at something already broken. You own nothing. Not even that fucking chocolate. I could still see the crushed candy scattered across the polished floor, the wrapper torn, the sweet smell of cocoa clinging faintly in the air as if mocking me. It wasn't about the chocolate—not really. It was about her voice, that sharp, venom-laced sneer that told me I was nothing, that I didn't belong here, that even the smallest scrap of comfort wasn't mine to claim. And the worst part? For a moment, standing there in that hallway, I almost believed her.
