All Chapters of Stranger at Her Door: Chapter 11 - Chapter 19

Maya had never realized how loud silence could be until she kept checking her phone and finding nothing.Not even a typing bubble.Not a missed call.Not a “hey.”Not even a reaction to her last message.She reread it for the fifth time:“I’m okay. Just tired.”Simple. Chill. The kind of text that didn’t beg for a response.But she wanted one anyway.She told herself it hadn’t been that long. Just a day.Maybe he was busy. Maybe he didn’t want to seem too eager.Maybe he was waiting for her to say something more.Or maybe he regretted everything.That thought hit like a slap.She tossed the phone on the bed and stood up, pacing her bedroom barefoot, trying not to spiral. The room suddenly felt too small. The air too stale. Her skin too aware of every spot he had touched.It wasn’t supposed to feel like this. It had just been sex.It had just been a connection.A conversation. A kiss. A hand on her face."Then let’s make this hurt the right way."God.Why did that line keep echoing in

The silence in the loft was the first thing Maya noticed.Not the morning light bleeding through the sheer curtains, or the faint scent of cinnamon coffee lingering in the air. It was the stillness. Hollow and echoing. Elias was gone.She pushed the sheets back and sat up, arms wrapped around her bare knees. Her head was heavy with everything unsaid. The conversation from the night before rolled back in like a tide, dragging pieces of her heart with it.“You don’t want to be with me,” he had said.And yet he had kissed her like he was starved. Touched her like he was drowning. Whispered her name like it tasted like salvation.Maya rubbed her face. Her fingers brushed against her lips and she hated that she still felt him there.She got up, pulling on his shirt again — the same one she had slipped into last night. It smelled like him. She pressed her nose to the collar for a second before pulling away, ashamed of herself. She wandered through the space barefoot, her steps quiet on the

Maya woke before him.The weight of Elias's arm was draped across her waist, heavy and warm. His body molded perfectly to hers, his breath slow and deep against the back of her neck. She should have been comforted. Safe. But the warmth that wrapped around her body didn’t reach the hollow ache behind her ribs.His words from the night before still pulsed through her mind.“It reminds us what we’re risking.”She didn’t know what she was risking. Not really. But she was beginning to fear it was more than just her heart.Quietly, she slipped out from beneath him, careful not to wake him. The floor was cold beneath her feet as she padded into the living room, grabbing one of his button-down shirts from the back of a chair and slipping it on. Her fingers automatically moved to the buttons, fumbling from habit, but her thoughts were elsewhere.The locked drawer.It tugged at her.Calling. Daring.Last time, she hadn’t gotten far before he’d caught her. But he had left her alone in his apartm

Maya stood at the threshold of Elias’s apartment, the key to the drawer burning a quiet hole in her coat pocket.The place was quiet, too quiet. No fire in the hearth, no lingering smell of his cologne. He’d left that morning with a kiss to her temple, a careful look in his eyes, and the same words echoing now in her chest:"Go if you want. Use the key. If you’re going to decide what you think of me, do it knowing the truth."She had promised herself she wouldn’t go. She had told herself it was a test—just another of his manipulations. But as the sun dipped past the skyline, shadows creeping through her small apartment like fingers, Maya had found herself pacing, restless, drowning in too many possibilities. And eventually, the key found its way into her hand.She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.It smelled like him in here. Woodsmoke and pine. Something darker underneath—leather and secrets. His jacket still hung over the chair, his boots left by the door like he’d just

The silence between them wasn’t empty. It was thick, alive with everything unspoken.Elias didn’t try to touch her. Not after everything he’d just confessed. He sat beside her on the bed, legs apart, elbows resting on his knees, head bowed like he was bracing for a verdict.Maya had no verdict to give.She stared at her hands, resting in her lap. She could still feel the edges of the photo, the worn paper of the letter, the sharp coldness of the past she’d pried open like a forbidden tomb. Her chest felt too small for her breath. But she didn’t move. Didn’t run.“I’ll stay,” she’d said, her voice rasping in the quiet, and he’d looked at her like she’d split him open again—only softer this time.Now, it was past midnight. The apartment was dim, lit only by a small reading lamp Elias had moved to the living room. They hadn’t said much after that. He offered her tea. She declined. Neither of them touched the food he brought out. The air between them was fragile, like old glass.He gave h