She wasn't herself anymore panting, trembling, shaking beneath the weight of everything she couldn't say. My hand rested at her throat, her pulse a wild confession, while the other traced the borders of her sweetest surrender. She clutched at me as though the room were drowning, her lips parted between breaths, her eyes forgetting the world. And I watched her unravel one heartbeat at a time until even silence could no longer pretend it didn't hear her.