RAVEN’S POV:
The silence of the house is no longer peaceful. It is heavy, and it presses at my chest, threatening to suffocate me.
I am sitting on the sofa in the main living room, my spine stiff, staring at the pendulum of the grandfather clock.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Every swing of the brass feels like a hammer nail driving into my head. Yara’s voice is like a shard of glass caught in my throat, repeating the words she had said earlier.
"Dante and I got together when I was seventeen," she had whispered, her eyes hollow. "He took my innocence and he broke me. Mentally, emotionally... he hollows you out until there’s nothing left but what he wants to see. He keeps you in a state of denial, Raven. If you don't snap out of it now, you’ll lose yourself forever."
Then Tamara’s voice joined, e
