Chapter 52:
The Letter Left Behind
POV: Mary
The silence stretched long after Nicolas’s footsteps faded into the hall. The weight he left behind, however, didn’t budge an inch. It settled like dust over everything, the walls, the windows, the air in my lungs. I could still feel the echo of his voice. His final words throbbed inside my skull like a second heartbeat:
"Because I need her."
My hands hovered over the paper.
It was just a slip of folded parchment, creased and yellowed at the edges like it had been carried for years. But it held the weight of a hundred unsaid things. I looked up at Andrew, standing stiff by the fireplace like the rage hadn’t quite left his limbs. His eyes were on me, burning but silent.
"Don’t," he said again, more softly this time.
"I have to." My voice
