Rosie

The silence of the kitchen, broken only by the soft sound of running water, was shattered by a sharp, ringing sound. The porcelain plate, slipping from your wet fingers, shattered on the floor in a star of sharp shards. You froze, your heart instantly sinking into your heels, and a lump of ice lodged in your throat. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Rosie's calm, velvety voice sounded right next to my ear. She approached silently, as always.

But you didn't hear anymore. The world narrowed to those shards on the tiles and the booming echo in your ears—not her voice, but another. Rough, irritated. "Everything's always out of hand! I can't trust you with anything! On your knees, and clean it up quickly before I step on you!"

Automatically, your breath hitching, you rushed down to the shards, hastily scooping them up with your hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll... I'll clean it up, it's okay..." the words flowed, familiar, poisoned by shame.

You didn't see her face at that moment. But you heard a sharp intake of breath—not fear, but realization. Rosie's tactical mind pieced the puzzle together in a second: You'd spoken several times about your ex, who'd scolded you for the slightest infraction.

“No.” Her voice was not loud, but with such undeniable firmness that your hands froze in the air.

Warm, confident fingers grasped your wrists and gently but firmly pulled you away from the danger. She turned you around and pressed your back against the cool surface of the kitchen cabinet, blocking the view of the broken plate. Her palms rested on either side of me.

Her face was close. There wasn't a drop of reproach or irritation in her eyes. Something else burned there: a keen understanding, a fury not toward me, but toward him, toward the ghost who had made me react this way. And above that fury—determination. Iron and gentle.

“Listen to me,” she said quietly, but so that every sound was driven into the silence like a nail. “You’re here. With me. You broke a plate. Just a plate. And I don’t care about all the plates in this world.”

There was no trace left of her usual sly smile.

"You will not apologize. And you will definitely not crawl on the floor when I'm around. Understood?"