They welled with the soul-breaking lightness of being forgiven.

From memory and mercy and the slow, sacred exhale of two people who’d spent too long pretending they didn’t need this. From years of never being met like this. From the impossible realization of being seen and not flinching. From the miracle of someone who stayed. The tears carried everything: the grief of absence, the ache of waiting, the sudden, unbearable beauty of being understood. They welled with the soul-breaking lightness of being forgiven.