The hotel door clicked shut behind him.
The silence inside the room felt heavier than the crowd noise from the night before.
Lukas walked in slowly, dropped his small overnight bag by the desk, then drifted toward the bed without really thinking. He let himself fall backward onto the mattress, arms spread, staring up at the white ceiling.
For a few seconds, there was nothing.
Then everything.
His father's voice replayed in fragments.
She was at the game yesterday.
She wants to arrange a meeting.
She's been trying to message you.
He exhaled slowly through his nose.
He didn't know much about her. In his previous life, she had barely existed as more than a shadow. A name that was never said. A door that was never opened. There had been no reunion, no confrontation, no dramatic return. Just absence.
