RYKE POV
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The hearing had offered resolution on paper, but Ryke found, in the weeks that followed, that paper resolution and actual peace were considerably different things.
He caught himself, more often than he wanted to admit, standing at Ren's door long after she'd fallen asleep, running scenarios his mind refused to release — what if Silo's alarm had triggered thirty seconds later, what if Sable had panicked differently, what if the whole morning had ended in the horror he'd spent three hours believing might be inevitable.
Neva found him there one evening, and instead of the gentle redirection she'd offered before, she simply sat down beside him on the floor outside their daughter's room.
"I keep doing this," he said. "I know it's not helping."
"I know," she said. "I do it too
