The silence after the scandal was louder than anything Elena had ever known.

Daniel vanished from campus. His office was cleared out overnight, his name scrubbed from the faculty list like he'd never existed. She heard rumors - some said he resigned, others that he was fired. No one knew for sure. Or maybe they did, and they just weren't saying it to her face.

Elena's suspension was temporary, but the shame lingered. Whispers followed her in every corridor. She couldn't walk through the student union without catching someone's sideways glance, their pitying smirk.

Maya tried to bridge the gap between them, but it wasn't the same. Too many words had gone unspoken for too long.

"Do you still love him?" she asked one night.

Elena hesitated, then nodded.

Maya just sighed. "I hope it was worth it."

It hadn't been.

Not then.

The months that followed blurred together. Elena withdrew from classes, moved back home for a while, cut her hair short like it might make her someone new. She didn't hear from Daniel. Not once.

It was like he'd disappeared with the last pieces of her.