Cassian POV
Maelor didn’t return until the sky had bled into night. I hadn’t left my office once. The entire day I sat there, tethered to the silence like a man awaiting a verdict he already knew would condemn him. I couldn’t bring myself to leave, not when there was still a chance however small that swift action might be needed.
On any other day, I would’ve shut everything down early just to get home to her. But she wasn’t waiting for me anymore.
The apartment no longer felt like home it was an echo chamber of her absence. The warmth she left behind had long since cooled, leaving behind only shadows and silence. Each memory that surfaced twisted deeper into me, a cruel reminder of what I’d lost.
Staying there had become its own form of torment. My mind, once a sanctuary, now felt like
