The bedroom door clicked softly shut behind them, sealing Apartment 1101 in silence once more.
For several lingering seconds, none of them moved.
Penelope stood in the hallway with one hand resting against the strap of her backpack. Inside, carefully wrapped between folded clothing and important documents, rested everything they had managed to recover from Emma Sofia Reyes' short life. A birth certificate. Hospital records. Family photographs. A pregnancy journal. Tiny keepsakes that would mean nothing to a three-month-old baby today...
But perhaps everything to the young woman she would one day become.
Penelope let out a slow breath before turning away from the apartment door.
"We should head back," Erik said quietly.
His voice carried the same calm steadiness it always did, but Penelope noticed the way his eyes lingered on the closed door for a fraction of a second longer than necessary.
Even Erik had been affected.
