The apartment settled into a deep stillness after Simon’s departure, the kind that felt both heavy and strangely hollow. Olivia stood beside the dining table for a long moment, unsure of where to place her hands, unsure of what to do now that the cold clarity of morning had faded and nothing remained except the soft echo of his footsteps leaving.
The quiet pressed against her. Not cruelly, but insistently, reminding her she was alone again in a place that still felt borrowed.
She gathered the empty dishes and carried them toward the sink, though Liza had already begun clearing the counters. The housekeeper moved with quiet grace, careful and unobtrusive. Olivia murmured a soft thank you. Liza inclined her head, nothing more, her eyes revealing nothing of the morning’s humiliation. Only p
