The silence that followed Aiden's question was heavier than anything Nia had carried all night.
"Then why do I feel like you did?"
His voice wasn't loud, but it lingered between them in a way that made everything else in the room feel distant. It didn't demand an answer, it pressed for one.
Nia held his gaze for a moment longer than she should have. Something in her chest tightened at the weight of it, at how easily he still managed to make her feel seen in ways she wasn't prepared for. Behind him, Elena stood slightly apart, watching without interrupting, her presence quiet but unmistakably present in the space they were standing in.
Nia exhaled slowly, carefully, as though anything deeper might crack something inside her she had spent years keeping intact. Her voice came out softer than she intended when she finally spoke. "I shouldn't have come."
The words didn't carry drama. They carried finality.
Aiden's expression shifted at that, just slightly. Not relief, not anger but something quieter, more restrained, like disappointment he refused to show fully. He started to say her name, as if trying to stop her from retreating into herself again, but Nia didn't let him.
She took a step back, then another, creating distance where there had just been none. Her voice steadied, though her hands betrayed her. "It was a mistake."
Aiden watched her carefully, his eyes following every movement like he was trying to make sense of something that refused to align. When he finally spoke again, his voice was low, controlled, but edged with something tired. "You always do that," he said. "Leave before anything is answered."
The words hit closer than she expected. Too close. For a moment, she looked at him again, but it was easier this time to look away. Not because she didn't want to face him,but because she didn't trust herself if she kept doing it.
She forced her tone into something steady. "Enjoy your evening," she said quietly, not bitter, not angry, just distant. Like she was stepping out of a space she had accidentally walked back into.
Then she turned and walked away.
Each step across the polished floor felt louder than it should have, the sound of her heels cutting through the music and conversation like something final. The further she moved, the harder it became to breathe properly, not because she was suffocating, but because she was feeling too much at once and refusing to show it.
Aiden didn't stop her immediately. That hesitation hurt more than anything else. It meant she wasn't being chased instead it meant she was being let go, even if neither of them truly wanted that.
Behind her, Elena shifted slightly in place, still watching, still silent, as though calculating a space she wasn't sure she fully understood yet.
Nia didn't look back.
Not once.
Because if she did, she wasn't sure she would keep walking.
She only stopped when she reached the quieter corridor outside the main hall. The noise of the gala dulled behind her, replaced by a hollow stillness that made her chest finally loosen, though not in relief. She pressed a hand lightly against the wall, steadying herself, breathing slowly as if trying to convince her body she was safe again.
Inside the hall, Aiden hadn't moved. He was still looking in the direction she had disappeared, like the space she left behind refused to stop existing in his mind.
Elena finally stepped closer to him, her voice soft but deliberate as she spoke. "You're shaking things you said you were over."
Aiden didn't look at her immediately. His attention remained fixed where Nia had been, as though distance meant nothing if memory was strong enough. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet, almost detached, but honest in a way that made it heavier.
"I never said I was over it."
And in that moment, something shifted. Not loudly, not visibly, but enough to change the shape of everything between them.
Outside the gala, Nia closed her eyes for a brief moment, taking a single steady breath before she forced herself to keep moving.
Because staying meant breaking.
And she wasn't ready for that yet.