C25 Her Choice, My Undoing

**Xavier's POV**

She stretched her hand and gave me the letter. I took it with a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

“What is this, Dorothy?”

“No questions, remember?” she whispered.

I opened it, my hands unwilling, my chest too tight. And when I read it—just a few words, black ink on paper—my knees almost gave.

A resignation letter.

I looked at her