Chapter 45: Silence after the storm

The tires of Adam's car had barely finished spitting gravel when the silence began to suffocate me.

I stood frozen at the villa's massive entrance doors, my fingers still tingling from where they'd brushed against his when he handed me the security codes. The morning sun painted the driveway in harsh stripes of light and shadow, each one a reminder of his absence.

'You'll be safe', he'd said. The team knows what to do.

As if safety was just a matter of armed guards and locked doors.

The house exhaled around me, its usual warmth leaching away minute by minute. Without Adam's brooding presence filling the space, the high ceilings seemed to stretch into infinity, the marble floors turned to ice beneath my bare feet. I caught myself listening for the familiar sounds that usually anchored my days—the precise click of his dress shoes on tile, the low rumble of his voice on business calls, the way he'd sigh through his nose when a report frustrated him.

Now there was only silence.

11:47 A