Damien noticed the change long before Ivy ever gave it a name.

It lived in the quiet spaces between them. In the way she no longer lingered in doorways as if she had nowhere else to be. In how her replies came late, careful, measured, stripped of warmth.

When she smiled, it was polite, restrained, as though she was doing it out of courtesy rather than feeling. When she laughed, it ended too quickly, cut off before it could settle. She no longer reached for him without thinking. She no longer ...