Ethan POV

Something was different about Claire.

I noticed it almost immediately, though I couldn’t put a name to it. It wasn’t something obvious—she wasn’t cold or distant, not exactly. She smiled when Luke talked, laughed softly at his jokes, thanked me when I brought her tea or adjusted her pillows. But there was a tightness behind her eyes, a guarded stillness that hadn’t been there before. Like she was holding a door shut inside herself, terrified of what might burst through ...