( Ava’s POV )
The rain hadn’t stopped by morning.
It came down in soft sheets, steady and relentless, blurring the world beyond the windows into gray watercolor. Ava sat at the kitchen table, a mug of untouched coffee cooling between her palms. The clock ticked quietly on the wall. Upstairs, the faint sound of footsteps and Lily moving around, humming under her breath.
Everything looked the same as yesterday, but it didn’t feel the same.
The air still held the echo of what had been said. Every word, every look.
She hadn’t slept much. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Brian standing in the dark kitchen, rain streaking the window behind him, his voice low and rough with something that wasn’t supposed to exist between them.
You’re mine, Ava.
She’d told herself it wasn’t real. Tha
