A SONG FOR THE BROKEN

3: Pap

t his past, but his

he street like he was waiting for something-or someone-that never came. He never explained those m

But every time she tried to reach deeper, he built walls made of silence and half-

ilm. The kind where everything was poetic and doomed. Leo had his head on her shoul

u're just pretending to b

out hesitation. "But pretending

"You don't have t

t away. When he did, i

o broken to be

voice. She cupped his face and whisper

y shared before, but a desperate, searching kiss, li

ething back. Like a man clutching a

piano again-only for her, late at night, when the city was quiet. The music he mad

ghts, stories she scribbled on napkins and notebook margi

ey were healing. Th

he found the unopened l

lope. Her name never mentio

wing she shouldn't open it-but needin

night. She waited, hopin

didn't s

ia wondered if some silences