The message was still glowing on my phone screen like a wound that refused to close.
Bring me the documents in 3 days or she dies.
My mother. The words wouldn’t leave me. They burrowed into my skull, echoing until I thought they’d drive me insane but what kept me frozen wasn’t the threat, it was Noah’s silence.
He hadn’t said a word since I showed him the text. He stood there in the living room, motionless, one hand braced against the edge of the table like the weight of the house itself was pressing down on him. Nova was asleep upstairs, the soft hum of her white-noise machine drifting faintly down the hall, but the silence between us was so heavy I could hear my own pulse.
I watched him, waiting. His jaw was tight, his shoulders rigid. He hadn’t even looked at me since I placed the p
