Chapter 41

Ethan's POV

I woke up before dawn, but for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel like getting out of bed. The room felt impossibly large and unbearably quiet, the silence pressing down on me like a thousand tons of steel. My pillow was still damp from tears I didn’t remember shedding, and my chest felt hollow, as though something vital had been ripped away from inside me.

I turned my head to the side, and my eyes fell on Elena’s blue blanket. I folded on the nightstand, though there were still traces of blood on it, but I didn’t care about that, the blanket was the one thing Elena cared about the most, Lauren must have brought it yesterday… before everything fell apart. My throat tightened painfully, and I pressed a fist against my mouth to keep from crying out loud.

Yesterday. God. Just yesterday.

My little girl. My only daughter. Gone.

I had imagined so many things for her future. Her first day at college. Teaching her to ride a bi