The drive felt longer than it should have not because of the distance, but because of the silence stretching endlessly between each passing second.
Alessia sat in the back seat, her gaze fixed on the streets outside, though she barely saw them. The city moved the way it always did busy, alive, indifferent. People walked, cars passed, life continued without pause. And yet, to her, everything felt off.
For the first time since all of this began, she wasn’t with him.
That realization settled slowly.
It should have felt like relief. Like freedom. Like she could finally breathe without the weight of his presence pressing against her thoughts.
But it didn’t.
Her chest remained tight, her mind restless, unable to settle. Beneath it all, there was a quiet, persistent unease something she cou
