[Alvar's POV — ThorenVald Estate —Guest Chamber]
CRACKLE!!
The fire snapped sharply, its echo crawling across the walls like a warning. The room was too quiet. Too still. Too hollow. The kind of silence that happens when something inside you collapses and the world politely pretends it didn't notice.
And over it all—his voice kept echoing.
"You'll forget me."
Forget him. Forget the man I—…the man I wanted a future with. So that was it? That was the ending the gods wrote for us? Cruel. Clean. Final.
A knock broke the quiet.
"Alvar…?"
Mother's voice.
I straightened immediately, swallowing everything that threatened to spill out. "Mother, please… come in."
The door opened, and she stepped inside with a faint smile—a soft, fragile thing I had learned to treasure ever since Father died. Her smiles became rare after that.
But Leif—Renji—brought them back.
That knowledge only made the ache worse.
