" When she [Hania] produced a sedative and offered it to me, I shook my head in refusal. I wanted to allow myself to cry, to live fully in this moment, because as painful as it was, it meant my walls had come down in a way I hadn't permitted in a long time. The ache of love and loss pierced me to the core of my soul. And it reminded me that I was still human.

[Maria Florkowska] "

― Gabriella Saab , The Last Checkmate