Chapter 38: A Name That Anchors Me

Gray’s POV The room was too quiet. Not in the peaceful way he sometimes liked — not like mornings at the lake house when the world was just waking up. No, this silence was tight and unnatural, coiled like a held breath. Something was wrong. He felt it pressing against his chest, squeezing just behind his ribs. Where was she? Amelia. Gray couldn’t speak. Couldn’t open his eyes. But he felt every word said around him. The timbre of Isabel’s voice when she whispered. The clipped rhythm of Charles’s footsteps pacing. Vivienne’s fingers brushing his hand. And Zach — restless, radiating worry like heat. “She hasn’t gone off the grid like this,” Isabel said, her voice thin and frayed. “Even when she’s upset, she checks in.” She hadn’t come. Two days now. The ache in his chest wasn’t phys