Maxwell’s Pov

The house was too quiet without Amelia. The silence wasn’t peaceful; it was heavy, pressing in from every corner like it wanted me to crumble.

I sat at the desk, staring at the drawer where the custody papers hid. My hand hovered over the handle, but I couldn’t bring myself to open it again. Those pages mocked me now, ink, paper, and signatures pretending to be shields. I’d read them a hundred times, clung to them as if they were a fortress, but Victoria had slipped ...