BENEATH THE FACADE
Behind the façade of wealth and power, a web of secret awaits
CHAPTER 36
The house had never felt this still. Not even when Emily left for university. Not even when her mother died.
This was a different kind of quiet—heavy, unkind. It didn’t settle. It hovered, like a breath held too long. The walls echoed with silence, yet somehow, it was the loudest thing I’d heard all day.
I stood at the far end of my study, fingers pressed lightly against the glass window. Outside, the gravel in the driveway had just begun to settle, still bearing the imprint of Nyla’s car tires. She had driven off only moments ago, with my daughter slumped in the passenger seat like a ghost of herself.
I watched until the dust cleared. Until there was nothing left to focus on but the ache in my chest.
I hadn’t said much to Emily before she left. Not because I didn’t care, but because the words wouldn’t come. They sat in my throat, too heavy to speak, too late to matter. She hadn’t looked at me.
