CHAPTER 1: THE FALLEN TRUTH
The hallway froze the moment she hit the floor.
Maya’s breath came in uneven, shallow pulls as she tried to gather the scattered papers. Her prosthetic leg lay awkwardly against the steps, slightly twisted from the fall. Pain shot through her body, but it wasn’t what made her shake.
It was the photos.
Dozens of them.
Some old. Some faded. Some taken secretly.
And all of them contained him.
Ethan.
The blonde boy crouched beside her, his hoodie sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms. His hand hovered in the air like he wasn’t sure if touching her would break something.
But his eyes… were already broken.
“Where did you get this?” he repeated, quieter this time.
Maya didn’t answer.
She only reached for the photo in his hand—too late.
He pulled it back.
His jaw tightened.
“You know me,” he said slowly, like testing reality. “You know me from before.”
The hallway around them blurred into whispers and phones recording.
But Maya only whispered one thing back:
May you like
“You weren’t supposed to remember me.”
That sentence hit harder than the fall.
