The villa was too quiet.

Not the kind of quiet that comes from peace or rest… no. This was the kind of silence that swallowed sound, a hollow, suffocating emptiness that made the walls feel farther apart than they should be.

I don't know why I had come back. Maybe I was hoping that this was all a dream.

I stood in the center of the living room, the keys Nova left resting in my palm, cold and final. Her engagement ring gleamed beside them, small, delicate, and heavier than any weight I had ...