LAUREN'S POV

I walked into the living room, my heels making soft taps against the floor as I stepped further inside. The lights were on, the curtains half-drawn, everything looking exactly the way it normally did, yet somehow the atmosphere felt different. A kind of heaviness lingered in the air, something I couldn’t exactly place. Maybe it was just me being tired, but still… something felt off. Almost like the house had exhaled a long sigh right before I walked in.

I found it a bit ...