We sit there staring at each other for a long moment, the silence between us so thick it feels suffocating. Heavy. The kind of silence that presses against my ribs until breathing starts to feel like work.
“Evelyn was with Silas?” I ask carefully.
The second the words leave my mouth, Ronan’s expression shifts. Barely. But I catch it anyway. The flicker of regret in his eyes like he wishes he could shove the confession back down my throat before I had the chance to hear it.
“Nova.”
A warning.
Too late.
“No, because this whole time I thought—” I cut myself off abruptly, realizing far too late what I almost admitted aloud.
That gets his attention immediately.
“You thought what?”
I shake my head too quickly. “It doesn’t matter.”
Ronan leans back in the chair for half a second before
