"Strange?" Kathrine blinked, her expression genuinely startled.
Ethan caught it immediately. Before she could spiral into the wrong conclusion, he lifted his free hand slightly. "Not in a bad way. I just mean… sometimes I find you hard to understand."
She stayed quiet, watching him carefully.
He hesitated for only a second before continuing. "That night at the bar, you were crying. You were holding Anna's hand and asking her to forgive you. You kept saying you regretted what you did and that you would never repeat it."
Kathrine's throat tightened.
The memory flashed in fragments. The dim lights. The weight of alcohol. The overwhelming guilt that had spilled out before she could stop it.
She remembered saying those words.
She had not realized Ethan was close enough to hear.
"What else did you hear?" she asked, her tone sharpening slightly despite herself.
It was subtle, but the shift was there.
