Heartache

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The apartment was eerily quiet.

A week had passed since the disastrous weekend at Victor’s home, and Katherine had spent every moment of it locked away in her room. The curtains remained drawn, the air stale with neglect, and the pile of uneaten meals Hailey left outside her door only grew.

She didn’t speak.

She didn’t cry.

She simply existed in the suffocating silence, drowning in the weight of another heartbreak.

Nathan had knocked on her door every morning, his voice laced with concern. Hailey had tried coaxing her out with coffee, gossip, even threats to drag her out herself—but Katherine ignored them all.

She barely touched her phone, except when she worked up the courage to call or text Zayn.

Nothing.

No response. No acknowledgment. As if he had vanished entirely, as if she had never mattered.

The realization cut deep, deeper than she wanted to admit.

She had let herself believe, just for a moment, that Zayn might be different. That he