Ella
I didn’t expect the quiet to feel this loud.
The Evans estate had always been spacious, but tonight it felt cavernous, like every hallway echoed with things left unsaid. I stood by the window in the guest room—*my* room, though it still felt strange to call it that—watching the city lights blink on one by one in the distance. Each glow reminded me of how small my choices seemed compared to the storm they stirred.
Paige’s message still burned in my mind.
*Do you want to know what really happened with the fire back then?*
That single line had done what no insult, no public humiliation, no online smear ever could—it had shaken my resolve. Paige never did anything without a reason. If she was dangling the truth in front of me now, it meant she believed she finally had leverage.
And
