She looked at Alina, who was playing with the edge of Maria's neck as if the world weren't crumbling around her.
"I'm not asking you to trust me today," she finally said. "I'm asking you to understand that if you leave here alone, they're going to find you."
Maria knew she was right.
She had known it since the first night in the mansion, when rest seemed so unreal that even sleep frightened her.
She knew it every time she changed her route through the market.
Every time she glanced at a reflection in a shop window.
Every time she hesitated upon hearing footsteps behind her.
And yet, accepting Adrienne's help involved another kind of risk.
A deeper one.
Not the risk of the body.
The risk of the bond.
Because if he turned out to be truly connected to Alina, even if through a cruel manipulation of the past, nothing would ever truly belong to Maria again.
Not the escape.
Not the child.
Not the story.
And that was the real abyss.
Not the threat of the men at the gate.
But the possibility of having to share the truth with someone who could change her daughter's life forever.
"What do you want to do?" Adrienne asked.
Maria hesitated before answering.
Not because she didn't know, but because for the first time in a long time, running wasn't enough.
Running was no longer a choice.
It was a habit.
And habits can become cages.
"I want to leave," she said, almost ashamedly. "That's the truth."
Adrienne nodded.
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