Elizabeth POV
Christian had only been gone four days. Four. Days. And yet it felt like four months. Or maybe four years. Time stretched endlessly without him—without his maddening presence, his sharp remarks, his way of taking up every inch of air in a room. The silence was unbearable. I was bored out of my mind and starting to wonder if talking to the houseplants would count as losing my sanity.
So, I did the one thing he specifically told me not to do. I called the girls over.
I could practically hear his voice in my head—stern, annoyed, commanding. Don’t let them near you when I’m gone, Elizabeth. But honestly? I needed them. I needed laughter, noise, anything to remind me I wasn’t living in some kind of luxury prison where the warden wore three-piece suits and smirked like the devil
