This wasn’t just about me anymore.
“Ma’am, do you have an appointment?”
The receptionist’s voice pulled me back to the present.
I looked straight ahead at Adrian’s face glowing above us.
“Yes,” I said calmly.
“I’m here to see Adrian Harrison.”
“And your name?”
I smiled.
Not nervously.
Not weakly.
But with the kind of strength that only comes after everything is already taken from you.
“Tell him Elena Cruz is here,” I said.
Then I looked down at Noah.
And added:
“And tell him… I brought his son.”
The lobby went silent.
Completely.
Because some truths don’t knock politely.
They walk in—
hold your gaze—
and wait for the world to break around them.