JADEN’S POV
Breakfast had settled into its usual quiet.
I preferred mornings like this. No unnecessary conversation. No performance required. Just the table and the food and the particular stillness of a house that had not yet fully committed to the day.
Olivia was across from me.
She had come down looking like herself. Hair done. Clothes put together. The version of her that moved through mornings with a composure that I had noticed early and continued to notice. She was not someone who arrived at the table in pieces. Whatever she carried she carried privately.
I respected that about her more than I had expected to.
I was working through my coffee when my phone vibrated against the table.
Ethan.
I glanced at Olivia briefly. She was looking at her plate. I stood up quietly and too
