Eloise
The apartment was too quiet.
I sat at my drafting table, pencil poised above fresh paper, but the lines wouldn’t come. Ideas flickered at the edges of my mind, fragments of shape, texture, color, but the moment I tried to capture them, they scattered like startled birds.
I stared at the blank page until my eyes blurred.
Outside, the city continued, horns, sirens, and voices. Life went on. But in here, in this small cocoon where I should’ve felt safe, I felt nothing but hollow.
I was alone.
Mike’s face flashed in my mind. His concerned eyes, his soft reassurances.
I wanted so badly to believe him. But how could I?
The leak of Max’s designs haunted me. Those sketches were sacred, between Max and me, and no one else. No one but Mike had seen them.
And Ava…
I swallowed hard.
