The door closed behind him with a dull, final thud.
Zayn didn’t turn on the lights right away.
The house welcomed him with silence, cold and cavernous, the kind that pressed against the ribs and made a man too aware of his own breathing. He stood there for a moment, keys still in his hand, staring into the darkness as flashes of the evening replayed behind his eyes like an unwanted film he couldn’t shut off.
Lena’s face.
Her voice.
That look she gave him when he said the words real marriage as if he had pulled the ground from beneath her feet.
He exhaled slowly and finally moved, shrugging off his jacket and tossing it aside as he crossed the living room. Every step felt heavier than the last, exhaustion settling into his bones now that the adrenaline was gone. His body was tired, bu
