Elena’s POV

I stood alone in the living room for a long time before Damien arrived.

The silence pressed down on me from every direction, thick and suffocating, as though the walls themselves were holding their breath. The fruit plate on the coffee table sat untouched, a thin layer of condensation beading along its edge and dripping slowly onto the glass surface beneath.

I stared at it without really seeing it, my mind replaying everything that had happened tonight, over and over, until ...