POV: Violet
The silence in our apartment was unbearable.
Ryan didn’t slam doors or yell he wasn’t that kind of man. But the absence of his warmth was louder than any shouting could ever be. His broad back was turned to me on the bed, the muscles taut, his breaths uneven.
I sat at the edge of the mattress, wringing my hands, staring at the shadows pooling across the floor.
“RayRay,” I whispered, praying the nickname would soften him the way it always did.
But his voice came back like ice. “Don’t.”
The word gutted me.
I lay down beside him, close enough to feel the heat radiating off his skin, but he may as well have been a world away. My chest ached, my throat burned with everything I couldn’t say. If I told him the truth about the messages, about the weight I’d been carrying would h
