Jay's POV
The moment stretched painfully between us.
Nobody looked away from David.
Not after that.
Not after the guilt that had flashed across his face so clearly that even he couldn't hide it.
The auditorium felt smaller now. The air felt heavier. Every unanswered question seemed to be pressing down on us at once.
I looked at David and for the first time that night, I stopped seeing him as the person at the center of the anonymous messages.
I saw him as someone carrying a secret.
A secret he had been protecting for years.
The stranger didn't say anything.
He simply waited.
And somehow, that was worse.
Because the silence forced all of us to think.
To remember.
To wonder.
Finally, Felix stood up.
The movement immediately drew everyone's attention.
His expression was serious.
Far more serious than usual.
He looked directly at David.
Then he asked the question everyone had been thinking.
"Who was Stein to you?"
The auditorium fell silent.
Completely silent.
Even the stranger seemed to be waiting for the answer.
David didn't respond immediately.
His gaze drifted toward the photograph resting on the chair.
Toward the smiling face none of us could remember.
Then he closed his eyes.
For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to answer at all.
But when he finally spoke, his voice came out quieter than I had ever heard it before.
"He was my friend."
The words echoed through the room.
Simple.
Honest.
Yet somehow they changed everything.
Because for the first time that night, Stein stopped feeling like a mystery.
And started feeling like a real person.