Silent drive

The journey home was a heavy, unbearable silence. If Thomas thought the ride to the old house had been quiet, this was worse , the kind of silence that pressed against your chest until it was hard to breathe.

The tension hung in the air filling every corner of the car.Thomas glanced at his boss through the rearview mirror, and what he saw made his stomach twist painfully.

The most unbelievable thing he’d ever witnessed in his life. No one would believe him if he told them. Alex Maradona cried. Alex Maradona shed tears. Alex Maradona had become human.

This was the first time. The first time in all the years Thomas had known him. Alex was always sharp, always calculating, always one step ahead. Cold. Composed.

A man who could walk into a room full of enemies and leave without a single crack in his armor. But now… now he looked broken. Shattered.

Thomas sighed, his chest aching. He hated seeing Alex like this. Because Alex wasn’t just his boss. He wasn’t just the name on billboards, the billionaire everyone feared and respected. Alex was his savior.

The man who had pulled him out of the gutter four years ago when he had nothing but debts and a bruised ego. Alex is four years younger but Thomas had always looked up to him like a younger brother looks up to the one who protects him.

What is happening? Thomas thought, his throat tightening.

A letter was clenched tightly in Alex’s hand, the edges crumpled from how hard he was holding it. Thomas stared at it. Whatever it was that had torn Alex apart probably lay inside that folded paper. The ink on it, the words There had more power than a thousand guns.

If only Thomas could read it. If only he could understand what was eating his boss alive. Maybe then he could say the right thing.

Maybe then he could help navigate him through this darkness the way Alex had once navigated him through his.

Just when Thomas thought life was finally becoming easier for Alex when he’d seen that faint, almost imperceptible smile during the lecture,

when Alex’s eyes had softened for Emma now everything was falling apart again. Like the ground had opened up and swallowed all the progress.

What actually happened in that house? If he’d known it would end like this, he would have burned the message before it ever reached Alex’s hands.

He would have lied, edited the words, done anything to keep Alex away from the old house.

But now it was too late.

What was this “old house” about anyway? Thomas wondered, his eyes still fixed on Alex as the city lights blurred past the tinted windows. The car moved, but it felt like they weren’t going anywhere.

Like they were both trapped in this moment, stuck between the past and the present, with no way out.

Alex didn’t blink. Didn’t wipe the tears. He just stared out the window, his jaw locked, his shoulders trembling slightly as he tried to hold himself together. And Thomas…

Thomas just kept driving, praying that when they finally got home, the silence wouldn’t follow them inside too.