OLIVIA’S POV
The house had a rhythm I was beginning to know.
Not just the schedule of it. The deeper rhythm. The way it breathed differently on mornings when Jaden had early calls versus mornings when he worked from the study. The way the kitchen smelled before Clara had fully started breakfast. The specific quiet of the third floor hallway at night when everyone had gone to their rooms and the house settled into itself.
I knew these things now without having tried to learn them.
That realization visited me on a Tuesday morning three weeks into living here and I sat with it for a moment before getting up.
I had not expected to know this house.
I had expected to move through it carefully. Like a guest who understood they were temporary and behaved accordingly. But somewhere between t
