The days that followed felt like walking a tightrope over a pit of knives.Aunt Clara’s presence in the house had become a constant, quiet pressure. She didn’t make any more direct accusations after that night in the living room, but her eyes followed me everywhere. When Derek entered a room, she watched how I reacted. When I left for campus, she noted the time. When I returned, she asked pointed questions about where I had been and with whom. Every casual conversation carried an undercurrent of suspicion.Derek, for his part, was growing restless. The night I ignored his texts while I was with Ryan, something in him had shifted. He still looked at me with the same dark intensity across the dinner table, but there was a new edge to it…frustration mixed with a dangerous patience. He didn’t push me into another private encounter right away. Instead, he waited, letting the tension build until it hummed in the air between us.Ryan, meanwhile, was becoming more present in my life. He tex
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