Caroline stared at the last email on her screen until the words stopped making sense.
The office was empty. No voices. No keyboard clicks. Just the hum of the building and the small pool of light from her desk lamp.
All day, she had been practicing normal.
At lunch, she'd eaten half a sandwich at her desk because a crowded café still made her skin prickle.
By late afternoon, Caroline's focus started to fray—not from weakness, but from exhaustion.
So when everyone left, the empty building didn't feel lonely. It felt controllable. No smiles to return, no sympathetic questions to deflect—just spreadsheets and silence, the kind of silence that had never once demanded she explain herself.
She'd missed days after the accident. She hated the feeling of falling behind.
She hit save, leane
