Chapter 39. What I Felt Inside

Athena

When we got home, the house felt different somehow, heavier with unspoken truths, charged with secrets about to be shared.

So instead of heading upstairs to our separate rooms like we usually did, Tristan and I gravitated toward the living room.

Tristan settled onto one end of the sectional couch, his long frame folding with that fluid grace he’d always possessed. I took the opposite end, tucking my legs beneath me and wrapping my arms around my knees like armor against whatever was coming.

The silence stretched between us, not uncomfortable exactly, but weighted with anticipation. I could feel him gathering his thoughts, choosing his words carefully the way he always did when something truly mattered to him.

My heart hammered against my ribs as I waited, because deep down I knew what this conversation would be about.

The questions that had been eating at me since I’d learned about Jess, since I’d knelt beside her grave and felt the