Silence didn’t follow the argument.
It lingered.
Heavy.
Unforgiving.
⸻
The house felt different.
Like something had been broken—not loudly, not dramatically—but in a way that couldn’t be undone.
⸻
Elara stayed in her room.
Door closed.
Phone face down on the bedside table.
⸻
She hadn’t cried.
Not once.
⸻
That was the unsettling part.
⸻
Because when the word left Aaron’s mouth—
Pathetic.
⸻
Something inside her hadn’t shattered.
It had… shut down.
⸻
Across the hall—
Maya leaned against the wall, arms crossed tightly.
Furious.
⸻
“I swear, I'm going to kill him one of these days—”
⸻
“You won’t.”
⸻
Maya turned.
Elara stood in the doorway now.
Calm.
Too calm.
⸻
“Elara?” Maya asked. “Are you…… okay?”
⸻
Elara shook her head slightly.
“No.”
⸻
A pause.
⸻
“I
