The silence after Steven left didn’t feel like peace.
It felt like exposure.
Like the house had been opened up and emptied, and whatever safety Eve had started to build now had gaps wide enough for the past to walk straight through.
She sat on the edge of the sitting-room sofa, her spine straight only because her body didn’t know what else to do. Her gaze stayed fixed on nothing in particular, an empty corner, a strip of light on the floor, the shadow of a vase. She wasn’t seeing any of it.
She was hearing him.
You’re happy.
You think I wanted to become this?
If it weren’t for them, your mother would still be alive.
Her stomach tightened again, sharp and involuntary. She pressed her palm to it as if she could physically hold herself together.
From the kitchen, she could hear Camil
