Lucian’s POV
The world had never felt this quiet.
The remote villa’s silence had wrapped around me like a weighted blanket since the day I drove here and tossed my phone onto the couch without so much as a glance back. I’d told myself I needed time, time to think, time to breathe, time to escape the noise.
But I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t breathing. I was hiding.
Every sunrise filtered through the glass doors like an accusation. Every meal I made in the open-plan kitchen tasted like guilt. Every night I laid my head on the pillow and stared at the wooden ceiling beams, wondering how things spiraled this far, this fast.
Jennifer had become a storm I couldn’t hold back.
I should’ve stopped her. It had taken everything in me to resist checking the outside world. But today… I broke.
Sitt
