Sleep wouldn't come, and my mind replayed every word I had overheard, every silence that Tristan had let stretch between him and Sophia. Silence that spoke louder than any denial.
The moonlight spilt across the Donovan gardens, silvering the leaves, and I sat curled by the window, knees tucked beneath my chin. From here, I could almost forget the weight of the house pressing in around me. Almost.
But then I saw him.
Tristan stood at his own window across the hall, his tall frame outlined by the faint glow of a lamp. He wasn't composed like he usually was. Not the cold and distant Tristan everyone else saw. His shoulders slumped and his head bowed as though the weight of the world rested there.
It startled me, seeing him like that. So human, so breakable.
For one reckless moment, I wanted to cross the hall; to knock on his door and demand he tell me the truth. But then the doubt crept in. The reminder of his words, the unshakable line between his world and mine.
And so, I whispered into the night, my voice too soft for him to hear: "I can't do this, Tristan. Not if it means losing myself."
Even if he wanted me, I wasn't sure I was strong enough to stand in his shadows.
-
I hadn't meant to linger at the window, but when I caught sight of her silhouette across the hall, I couldn't turn myself away.
She looked small, fragile, folded in on herself. How much I wanted to cross the space between us, to knock gently on her door and tell her everything I'd buried and to confess that the reason I'd been so cold was not because I didn't want her, because wanting her would mean dragging her into the life that I swore I'd never taint her with.
I stayed rooted where I was, the words caught in my throat.
I saw her lips move, a whisper I couldn't hear, but I could feel it. The tremor in her shoulders, the way her gaze dropped as though giving up on something she had held onto for too long.
My hand pressed against the glass.
"Ellie…" The name left me like a prayer, soft, broken. A slip I couldn't contain.
But she didn't hear it, or maybe she chose not to.
The distance between us never felt greater, and for the first time, I wondered if my silence had already cost me the one thing I couldn't bear to lose.
The next morning, Ellie packed her bag quietly, her movements careful not to wake Sophia. She told herself it was temporary, just a few nights at her own house. But deep down, she feared this was the first step in leaving the Donovan world behind.
What she didn't know was that Tristan, standing in the shadows of the stairwell, had seen the bag in her hand.
And he wasn't ready to let her go.