Maxwell’s POV

The air in the house felt poisoned. Amelia’s cries had shaken the walls, but it was the silence afterward that sank its claws into me. The silence wasn’t empty; it was alive, a suffocating weight pressing into every corner of the room. I shut the door to my office, pressing my palms against the desk to steady myself. My chest was heavy, my pulse a constant drumbeat in my ears, loud enough that I swore it could be heard through the walls.

I told myself to think. To ...