Javi froze.
The noise of the crowd, the traffic, the chatter around him—it all dulled into a distant hum.
Jane stood a few feet away, breathing hard from the run, her chest rising and falling. For a second neither of them spoke. Twenty years collapsed into a single, unbearable moment.
Anne turned first.
She had been mid-sentence to Joanna when she noticed Javi wasn't walking anymore. She followed his line of sight and saw the woman standing there. Then she saw Javi's face.
Shock.
Not confusion. Not irritation.
Shock.
"Javi?" Anne asked quietly. "Who is she?"
He didn't take his eyes off Jane.
"That's Jane."
Anne stilled.
That was all she needed.
He had told her the story a while ago. Not in detail at first. Just fragments. A name. A past. A closed chapter that had shaped everything that came after. Over the past few weeks she had learned the rest, gently, piece by piece.
Jane.
Anne nodded once.
