Lahat ng Kabanata ng To Love Again: Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 135

The dinner with Lilian and Devon had done something to me. Something small but important.Maybe it was Evangeline’s excitement or baby Alexander falling asleep in my arms. Maybe it was the conversation with Devon on the porch. Or maybe it was Lilian and her stubbornness. But when I got home that night, I didn’t go straight to bed. I didn’t collapse on the couch and let the silence swallow me whole like I’d been doing for days.Instead, I sat at the kitchen table and reached for the files Alicia had sent home. Alicia was another reminder of Marissa. She'd picked her after the interviews. She'd said she would fit perfectly into the role.It was past midnight. The streets were quiet outside, the city finally still. The kitchen was dimly lit, just the overhead light and the soft glow of the lamp beside me. I stared at the top page, blinked, and then read it again.And for the first time in over a week, the words made sense.Not all of it, of course. I was still distracted. My mind still d

I knew something had shifted the moment the door creaked open that night.I was lying on the edge of the bed, back turned, arms stiff beneath the thin sheet. The night was heavy. Too still. No wind, no creaking boards, no distant owl cries from the woods. Just silence. And then the soft sound of the doorknob turning.I didn’t move.I wanted to believe it was my mind playing tricks. Maybe a draft. Maybe the door just wasn’t latched properly. But no. Footsteps. Slow, deliberate. And then the quiet click of the door shutting again. I knew it was him.I closed my eyes, even though every part of me was screaming to turn, to run, to hide. But I couldn’t hide in here. Not from him. Not when he held all the keys."Marissa," he said, voice low. Like he didn’t want to wake someone else. There was no one else.I didn’t answer.The mattress dipped as he sat behind me. I felt his presence like a storm cloud hovering over my skin. His fingers brushed my arm and I flinched. He froze."You’ve been di