The first light of dawn seeped through the heavy curtains, casting a pale glow over the room where Blythe and Everett sat in strained silence. The night’s storm had passed, but its tremors still rippled through the air, unsettled and electric. Neither of them moved, as if the fragile truce between them could shatter with the slightest breath.
Blythe stared at her hands, restless and trembling. The weight of last night’s revelations pressed down, suffocating and raw. She had agreed to trust Everett, but the word felt foreign, a fragile bridge stretched over an abyss of doubt. The way he looked at her — not with tenderness, but with a calculating edge — unsettled her more than any threat outside these walls.
Her mind churned with questions, swirling in a storm she couldn’t calm. What had s
