The room seemed to hold its breath as time stretched, a fragile line between reality and the incomprehensible. The veterinarian’s cry had frozen everyone, her exclamation hanging in the air like an echo unchained from time.
Leo, who seemed moments away from crossing that final threshold, suddenly emitted a sound that was both a whimper and a bark. His eyes, moments ago clouded with the haze of age and fatigue, now shone with a clarity that seemed to defy the inevitability of his condition.
