Chapter 178

CHAPTER 20… VALENTINA There is a moment— a tiny, fragile moment, where you forget what the word breath means. That’s what the Veil felt like. No choking. No drowning. Just… forgetting that anything other than stillness ever existed. I stood at the edge of something that looked like a cliff, but wasn’t. I could feel the world shifting beneath me, like the ground was stitched from memories that weren’t mine. Or maybe— they were. I wasn’t sure anymore. My fingers curled at my sides, but even that felt distant, like I was remembering what hands were supposed to feel like. A voice flickered somewhere far behind me. Soft. Warm. Like someone saying my name. My name… What was it? I closed my eyes. The Veil sighed around me, cold and heavy, brushing over my skin like a mother comforting a child. “You don’t need to remember,” it whispered. “You don’t need to hurt anymore.” And for a moment… I wanted to believe it. All of it. Because everywhere I looked, I saw versions of myself— broken, small, b