AVA’S POV
The morning sun crept into the dining room like an uninvited guest. A thin, pale strands of light slipping through the heavy velvet curtains, stretching lazily across the polished surfaces. It should have felt warm, or comforting even. But it didn’t, not today, not ever in this house.
The light only made everything look colder.
I hadn’t really slept, not even for a moment.
My wedding night had passed like a suspended dream I couldn’t wake from, me lying on that enormous bed in the master suite, staring endlessly at the ceiling, counting the faint cracks in the plaster just to keep my mind from unraveling. The silence in the room hadn’t been peaceful. It had been loud and suffocating pressing down on me until it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I had become painfully aware of ev
