Camelia’s POV

The house was too quiet.

Our house was never meant to be quiet—it was supposed to be alive with footsteps, laughter, the hum of conversations spilling from one room to another. Instead, silence stretched like a warning, settling into the walls, pressing against my chest.

Barry wasn’t home much these days. When he was, his presence filled the air in a way that was impossible to ignore. Sharp, commanding, unyielding. He had that rare talent for making a room his, even if he never said a word. But lately, he’d been bringing something else back with him—a weight I didn’t recognize, shadows that didn’t belong to this house....