Alina’s POV

The silence in the house was almost too loud.

I sat curled up on the couch, my knees tucked under me, staring blankly at the window where the curtains swayed ever so slightly with the night breeze. It should have been comforting, the way the familiar walls wrapped around me, the way the scent of home clung to every surface. But instead, it felt suffocating, like the walls were closing in on me, pressing down with the weight of everything I had carried for far too long.

My head throbbed with exhaustion. Not the kind a night’s sleep could cure, but the deep, soul-sucking tiredness that came from...