Chapter 63

Aiden POV

For the past few days, the house felt quieter than usual. The kind of quiet that made my skin crawl and my chest tighten. Grandma and Aunt Kate or should I say my stepmother were gone, off to Italy for some event I didn’t care about. At first, I thought their absence might be a relief, but it wasn’t. It made everything worse.

The silence wasn’t peaceful; it was oppressive. There was no one around to cook a fresh meal, no comforting smells coming from the kitchen. Instead, I had to heat up leftovers from the fridge and eat alone at the table. I tried to pretend it didn’t bother me, but it did.

I missed Mom.

Not that I hadn’t always missed her, I did. But today, the weight of her absence pressed harder on my chest. Why didn’t she care? Why did she leave me behind? Maybe she was happy wherever she was, living her life while I was stuck here, miserable and forgotten.

Or was it Dad’s fault?

Dad wasn’t cruel, not really. He didn’t yell