ELENA

~•~

The days had dragged slowly since my birthday—ten, maybe eleven—but they felt like months. Something had shifted in the air inside Dominic’s estate, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Everything felt tighter. More distant. The kind of silence that didn’t just settle—it hovered. Like it was waiting for something to break.

Dominic hadn’t said a word to me. Not one.

That morning after my birthday, he had walked past me in the living room like I wasn’t even there. ...