AIDEN’S POV
The silence between us was suffocating—a thick, unspoken tension that pressed against my chest with every step I took, Elena trailing behind me. I led her up the stairs, each creak of the wood beneath our feet echoing like a drumbeat in the stillness.
She walked beside me, her presence both familiar and foreign. Her grace remained untouched, but her warmth was gone. Her heels clicked softly against the steps, a sound that once would have made my heart skip. Now, it only deepened the ache in my chest.
She wasn’t the same woman who had once called this place home. The thought clawed at me, sharp and unrelenting. And yet, seeing her here again—her silhouette against the dim light of the hallway, the faint scent of her perfume lingering in the air—made something inside me
