Lina’s POV
The space I had asked for didn’t feel peaceful. It felt empty. Hollow. Like all the air had been sucked out of the house.
For three days, we lived like polite strangers haunting the same place. I stayed in the sunroom. He stayed locked in the office. We ate at the same table, but the only real sound was the clink of cutlery against plates — sharp and final, like a judge’s gavel. He was giving me exactly what I said I needed.
And somehow, that hurt more than if he had fought me or denied me.
Everything within me had completely gone numb. I just want to leave, leave this place.
By the fourth night, the wall built on silence had finally broken. I was standing in the kitchen, pouring a glass of water I didn’t even want, when the terrace door shut with a heavy thud that made me
