Chapter 74

Alessandro

She came back with silence clinging to her like a second skin. It walked in with her, hovered all around her, and even oozed too.

It was the kind of silence that didn’t ask for attention but pulled it anyway. The kind that wasn’t loud or dramatic, but still left everything unsettled. Certainly, the kind that fell between two people unsure of what to say, and this time with a heavier, denser kind—like fog thick enough to choke.

I heard the car arrive, and for a moment I stood behind the curtain, watching. She stepped out slowly, her figure smaller than I remembered, as though something had been taken from her and hadn’t returned. She didn’t glance at the house, didn’t even look up.

One of the guards approached to help with her bag, but she waved him off with a quiet nod and walked in like the weight of the world had rearranged her spine. When she walked in, she handed off her coat to one of the guards and headed upstairs as though she hadn’t