The silence after Valen left was heavier than the slam of the front door.
It pressed against my chest, thick and suffocating, like the walls themselves were watching me, waiting to see what I would do.
He had gone to another “meeting.”
That word had become a black hole, one that swallowed explanations, time, and the truth.
I should’ve curled up on the couch, maybe read a book, maybe showered off the lingering smell of smoke and iron from last night’s chaos. I should’ve done anything except what I was about to do.
But curiosity… it clawed at me. It gnawed at my ribs like a starving thing.
Because I couldn’t stop replaying it, the way he’d looked at me before he left. The way his eyes lingered a moment too long, as if he had thought about telling me something and then locked it away be
