The mansion felt too large the moment Caro stepped inside, as if the space itself had expanded just to emphasize how alone she was. No footsteps met her arrival, no voice called her name, only the distant hum of lights that no longer felt warm but indifferent. She paused near the entrance, listening for anything that confirmed she was not already cut off, but the silence answered first. And somewhere deep inside, she already knew Peter had returned, but not to her.
She walked slowly through the corridor, her fingers brushing the cold surface of the wall as if searching for something real to anchor her thoughts. "Peter?" she called softly, her voice careful, almost testing the air rather than expecting an answer. No response came. Only the faint sound of a door closing somewhere deeper in the house, deliberate and final. That sound alone made her chest tighten, because it wasn't absence, it was avoidance.
