The Shadow Inside

julia — First-Person POV

I had seen that expression before.

Not on Alan — Alan didn't do guilt the way other people did guilt. He didn't crumple or deflect or fill the space with explanation. His guilt looked like stillness. Like a man who had made a calculation and was now encountering the cost of it and was not going to pretend the cost wasn't there.

I had seen the version of it that came with I handled it wrong.

This was a different version.

This was the version that came before that sentence