SOFIA
The silence didn’t go away as the day went on.
It was everywhere, in the hours we spent in the same room, in the long pauses between our movements, and in the quiet moments where neither of us spoke or left. It wasn’t an empty silence. It was on purpose, held in place just like everything else in this house.
By the time the sun began to set, I stopped pretending to work. The papers in front of me hadn’t changed, and neither had the rules. What had changed was the feeling in the air. It felt heavy, like everything was being kept secret for a reason I didn’t understand yet.
I closed the folder and rested my hand on it for a second before pushing it away.
“You knew him.”
I didn’t say it like a question.
Across the table, he didn’t answer right away. He kept looking at his own pap
