It had been three days since that café conversation with Maya.
Three days since her words started echoing in my head like some annoying, heartfelt anthem I never asked for.
I’d gone home that evening expecting the usual tension. The hovering. The possessiveness. The caged animal watching my every move like I was some reckless bird he couldn’t afford to let fly.
But instead, Dario had just… nodded at me.
No fight. No storm.
He hadn’t said a word.
He hadn’t touched me.
And somehow, that silence? That careful nothing?
It was louder than any of his threats.
Now, I stood in the upstairs hallway, staring at the closed door to his office like it was the gateway to some alternate universe. One where I didn’t crave his attention like it was oxygen. One where his absence didn’t scrape at me
