CHAPTER 49 – WHEN THE SILENCE SCREAMED
R I N A
The key felt heavier in my hand than it ever had before.
Maybe it was just me, maybe I was the one who had changed but when I slid it into the lock and pushed the door open, it was like stepping into a stranger's house.
The hallway light was off. The house smelled faintly of lavender and coffee, but both scents felt stale, like they'd been left behind hours ago.
I shut the door and stood there, unmoving, listening.
Nothing.
No soft music playing from the kitchen. No cups clinking as Liora washed up after dinner. No little feet running down the hallway. No giggles, no squeals, no calls of "Mama!" like there used to be every single night when I walked in late.
Just silence.
And that was when I knew, she has really left.
She was gone.
I didn't need to look for proof, but I found it anyway.
Her shoes the ones she always kicked off by the door were gone. The cardigan she left on the back of the couch was folded neatly on the armrest. The mug she always drank her tea from was turned upside down on the rack, clean, waiting, but she wasn't here to drink from it.
The realization hit like a physical blow.
I stumbled to the couch and sat down hard, staring at the blank wall opposite me.
For a long time, I couldn't even think. I just sat there, my mind empty, my chest heavy, my throat aching.
And then, slowly, like cracks spreading through glass, the thoughts came rushing in.
I had pushed her away.
I had ignored every warning, every plea, every moment she tried to reason with me.
She had stood by me when no one else had, even when I'd been at my lowest, even when I'd been so angry I'd snapped at her.
And I hadn't listened.
I had packed my bags.
I had been ready to disappear again and take the only two people she loved as much as I did.
I had left her no choice but to walk away.
My throat burned as I curled forward, clutching a throw pillow to my chest.
I didn't cry at first. I just sat there, shaking, my fingers digging into the fabric.
And then it broke.
The tears came hot and hard, spilling down my face, soaking into the pillow, until I was gasping and wiping at my cheeks with the back of my hand.
I had wanted to be strong. I had told myself I was protecting the girls. That this was all for them.
But now, sitting here in the empty house, with their toys scattered in the hallway and their beds empty down the corridor, I wasn't sure anymore.
Because they weren't here.
They were with him.
And no matter how much I hated him, no matter how much I told myself I couldn't forgive him a part of me knew he would never hurt them.
That was what hurt most of all.
I closed my eyes and saw their faces identical and perfect, bright-eyed and giggling, their hair always a little messy from running around.
They had been my whole world for five years.
My reason for breathing.
Every bedtime story, every scraped knee, every tantrum, every fever in the middle of the night I had been there for it all.
I had carried the weight alone, and I had been proud of it.
But now they were with him, with the man whose blood ran in their veins, with the man whose face they mirrored so completely that even I had stopped pretending they might not be his.
Would they still look for me when they woke up tomorrow?
Would they still cry for me when they were scared?
Or would they look at him at Lucian Dreven and see someone who had always been missing from their world, someone they'd been waiting for without even knowing it?
The thought made my chest squeeze painfully.
Because he could give them everything I couldn't.
Security. Protection. Influence.
He could open doors for them in this city that I would never even be allowed to knock on.
And what if he used that against me?
What if he decided I didn't deserve to be in their lives at all?
He was powerful enough to make it happen.
He was powerful enough to erase me completely if he wanted to.
And if he did…
I wouldn't survive it.
I stood up suddenly, the need to move overwhelming, and walked down the hallway to their room.
The door was ajar, and I pushed it open slowly, my breath catching.
The night-light still glowed softly, casting a golden haze across the room.
Their little beds were empty.
Their favorite plushies were still there one tucked against a pillow, the other half-fallen to the floor.
I bent down and picked it up, clutching it to my chest, sinking onto the floor between their beds.
The tears came again, silent this time, soaking into the soft fabric.
I rocked slightly, holding onto the plush toy like it was the only thing tethering me to the earth.
By the time the first threads of light crept through the curtains, I hadn't moved.
My back ached. My throat was raw.
But something inside me had shifted.
I couldn't sit here forever, paralyzed by fear and anger.
I couldn't keep pretending that hiding would solve anything.
If I wanted my girls back if I wanted to be their mother in more than just name I had to stop running.
I had to stop letting the past control me.
And that meant facing him.
Facing Lucian Dreven.
The man I hated.
The man I feared.
The man who now held my entire heart in the form of two little girls who were probably laughing in some mansion across the city right now.
I wiped my face with trembling hands, took a deep breath, and stood.
I didn't know how I was going to do it.
I didn't know what I would say.
But I knew one thing.
I wasn't going to let him take them from me without a fight.