POV: Elena
6:15 AM — The Walls Are Breathing
I've always been good at pretending.
Smiling through awkward silences, laughing too hard at bad jokes, nodding at people I didn't care to understand. It's not dishonesty. It's survival. It's what women are taught to do — smooth over tension, make a life look good even when it isn't.
But this morning, the air was thick. Like it had its own lungs. Like the house was watching me.
Milo wouldn't look at me. Aaron was jumpy. And I… I was barely holding it together.
He knows.
Milo knows.
And if he decides to tell—
No. I couldn't go there yet.
6:27 AM — Flashback: A Normal Beginning
When I first met Aaron's dad, it wasn't like this.
He was charming. Respectful. Steady. I'd been through enough chaos to think that was what I needed.
He cooked me pasta the first time we had dinner. Told me stories about Aaron, about how proud he was. About how he and Milo practically grew up in his living room.
