Chapter 107

• “What word?” I press, my voice sharper than I intended.
• Ruth flinches, her weight shifting uneasily from one foot to the other. She averts her gaze, swallowing hard before she speaks. “When the guard came into your room. When he… attacked us.”
• My heart slows, and a pressure builds in my chest, suffocating and cruel. She isn’t saying it outright, but I know what she’s implying. I wait, needing—no, demanding—the truth, not half-spoken fragments.