Scarlett's POV
The morning after felt like silence had settled into every corner of the house.
Not the kind of silence that brings peace, but the kind that echoes with everything left unsaid. A silence I knew too well. It pressed against the walls, sifted through the curtains, coiled itself in the corners of my chest. But I didn’t fight it.
I let it settle.
Because sometimes, survival begins by learning how to sit with your ghosts without flinching.
I didn’t go looking for Jasper.
I didn’t ask if he meant it, when he told me to leave too, when his voice shook with grief and rage, when he couldn’t even look at me. If he wanted me gone, he could say it again in daylight.
Until then, I stayed in the guest room.
I made the bed.
I brewed a pot of tea that I didn’t drink.
I folded my r
