The moment the front door closed behind her, silence settled over the house.
Not an ordinary silence, but a heavy, suffocating one, the kind that seemed to press against her ears and make every thought inside her head ring even louder than before.
For several seconds, Lana remained standing in the hallway with her hand still resting on the doorknob, as though her body had forgotten how to move and her mind had not yet caught up with the fact that the night was over.
Everything from the evening replayed behind her closed eyes.
Thomas.
Violaine.
The ballroom.
The lies.
Martin.
And then, most painfully of all, the memory of his arms around her when her knees had nearly given out beneath her.
Even that single recollection was enough to make her chest tighten painfully.
“No,” she whi
