Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen  His Trust In My Frozen Fractals 

Annabelle's POV

Still frozen, I realized I was already sitting in the sitting room for a rather too long time, and I decided to step outside.

The men were already on their way to meet Antonioni in the place where he was detained.

As I stepped out, the Dome did not erupt all at once in my ears.

It cracked first.

I noticed it in the smallest things, the way footsteps stopped echoing, the way doors that were usually slammed shut were now pulled closed gently, as though the house itself had become fragile. Men who never hesitated were suddenly standing still, hands in their pockets, staring at nothing. Voices dropped. Even laughter, when it appeared, sounded wrong… brittle, like glass tapped too lightly.

Then the crying began.

Not screaming. Crying.

It traveled through the Dome like a slow, spreading stain. From the servants’ quarters to the inner halls. From the kitchens to the corridors Antonioni rarely walked. Grown men wiped their faces with the backs of their hands and turned away q