The world looked different without him.

It wasn’t just that Bryan’s laughter no longer filled the corners of her mornings, or that his cologne had faded from her pillow. It was the silence he left behind a silence that stretched itself thin across her days, humming quietly between heartbeats.

Tokyo had always been beautiful in motion a city that never stopped to feel. But now, Violet found herself slowing down. Listening. Waiting.

She told herself it was because of the babies. Because she needed calm, stability, routine. But the truth was simpler, and far harder to admit: she missed him.

Every morning, she made two cups of coffee. She only...