POV: Liam
Maren went to bed at eleven. She did it without ceremony, simply standing from her chair and saying goodnight with the finality of someone who had said everything they intended to say and saw no reason to linger. Isla went out through the front door with her jacket and her phone and positioned herself somewhere in the dark outside with the quiet competence she seemed to apply to everything.
And then it was just me and Maya in the small living room with the fire burning low and the weight of the last two hours sitting over everything like weather.
I did not know what to say. That was not a feeling I was accustomed to. I had spent three years being the person in every room who knew exactly what to say and exactly how to say it and exactly what effect it would have. Standing in f
