Third person POV
Sleep refused to come.
Sonia lay on her back, eyes fixed on the ceiling, replaying every word spoken in that hallway. Alexander’s unreadable face, the heaviness in his voice, the way he said Because it’s you, all of it looped endlessly in her mind like a cruel refrain.
Her heart wanted to cling to it, to take comfort, but her mind sharpened its claws, dragging her back to reality. He had walked out of Hayley’s room. That was not a dream, not a trick of shadow or sound.
And that truth burned more deeply than anything his words could soften.
She turned onto her side, clutching the pillow tighter, her jaw clenched until her teeth ached. Somewhere beyond the walls of her room, the house lay in its silence, too perfect, too still, like a predator lying in wait.
Eventually
