~ Ophelia’s POV ~
The mansion carried a different kind of silence after Oswald’s death.
It wasn’t empty or calm — it was watchful.
Doors were checked twice, guards stood in tighter formation, and every whisper felt like it belonged to someone listening behind a wall.
Ryker didn’t speak to me for three days.
He didn’t yell.
He didn’t threaten.
He simply… watched.
Any room I entered, he was already there.
Any hallway I thought I’d walk alone, he somehow appeared at the end of it — like a shadow that learned how to breathe.
It felt like being followed by a storm I couldn’t outrun.
I tried reading to distract myself, but I couldn’t get through a single page. My eyes traced the words, but my mind stayed hooked on the weight of his silence.
On the third evening, I escaped to the libr
