(Ava’s POV)
The storm finally broke the next morning.
Sunlight slipped weakly through the blinds, spilling in narrow stripes across the kitchen floor. The air still smelled faintly of rain and something else but with something heavy that hadn’t quite lifted.
Ava moved quietly through the house, her footsteps soft against the worn hardwood. She could hear Lily laughing somewhere upstairs, her voice light and careless, the sound of someone who had no idea the walls around her were beginning to hum with tension.
Ava envied that.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, trying to shake off the hollow feeling that had settled behind her ribs. Sleep had been fitful again. Every time she closed her eyes, her mind went back to Brian standing in the kitchen the night
