Aria’s POV
It started quiet.
Too quiet, like the world had forgotten how to breathe.
He hadn’t spoken to me since that morning And when he did look at me, it wasn’t anger anymore. It was worse. It was distance. Like he was standing on the other side of a wall he’d built himself, watching to see if I’d try to climb over again.
I told myself I didn’t care.
That I didn’t need him to believe me.
But every time the elevator doors opened and his footsteps echoed down the hall, something inside me turned small. Hopeful. Stupid.
He’d saved me once, dragged me out of a place I never thought I’d leave alive.
And then he’d built another cage. A prettier one. A quieter one.
But a cage all the same.
That morning, I sat by the window watching the city breathe. People moving. It was almost pea
