Questions and silence
She asked what was going on, but Ethan waved her away, too stunned to answer. His silence only heightened her anxiety.

Laura, always one to need answers, turned her questioning gaze to me. ‘What’s in that envelope?’ she pressed.
I remained silent, unwilling to break Ethan’s moment of reckoning. The tension in the room was palpable, and Laura’s frustration was mounting.