*Elio*
Nothing more was said between Cat and me for the rest of the unbearably long plane ride. Cat turned to look out the window, her whole body tensed in a ball as if she would never unravel again. She didn’t look at me once, and her silence hurt worse than any physical blow.
Lost in thought, consumed by anxiety, all I could do was sit and wait in the silence. Every time my eyes slid closed, exhaustion came to grip me, I swore I could hear Emilia's cries echoing in my head.
How could I rest, I thought guiltily, when our child faced who knew what kind of terror? If this was the kind of horror that my parents had experienced when I was a child, then I understood now why they had left.
