"Actually… the thing is… my parents are dead," Ava murmured, her voice barely breaking through the silence, soft as the wind through brittle leaves.
Each syllable left her lips slowly, deliberately—like stones delicately placed across the surface of a frozen lake, threatening to crack with the weight of truth.
The room fell still.
In that instant, the air around them seemed to shift, charged with a weight none of them had anticipated. Her words, though gently spoken, landed like a thunderclap. Both Amelia and Rebecca stiffened, their earlier remarks lingering in the space between them like smoke—sharp, regrettable, and impossible to take back.
