MAXIMUS’S POV
The silence in my office was unbearable.
It pressed down on me like a weight, heavy and suffocating, wrapping around every thought that tried to crawl out of my head. I’d been here since I returned to the palace—door locked, curtains drawn, fire out.
I didn’t want to feel.
I didn’t want to think.
I just wanted to be numb.
The desk in front of me was covered in papers, most of them reports I hadn’t touched. My throne-like chair sat behind it, cold, unwelcoming. I didn’t sit there. I sat on the edge of the couch instead, elbows on my knees, staring at the floor like it could give me answers.
I couldn’t go to my bedroom.
Not when everything in there screamed her name.
The scent of her still lingered in the sheets. The faint memory of her laugh clung to the walls. Every
