The afternoon drifts. We eat. We talk. We don’t talk. We watch half a movie and pause it three times because nobody is actually paying attention.
At some point, Ellie gets up and stretches. “Okay. I have to go. If I don’t show my face at home, my sister will assume I’m dead and start a search party.”
Emma stands too, gathering cups. “I should head out too. I’ve got that thing later with Ethan.”
Ellie points at me. “Text us. If you don’t text us, I’m coming back.”
“I will,” I promise.
Emma hugs me again, soft and tight. “You did good today.”
I swallow hard. “I don’t feel like I did.”
Emma pulls back and looks me in the eye. “That’s because you’re still in it.”
Then they’re gone, and the quiet returns.
This time it isn’t huge.
It’s just… there.
I clean up slowly. Not because the mess is big, but because moving gives my hands something to do. I throw away emptycups, fold blankets, reset the living room into something that looks like a house again instead of a landing spot.
When everything is back in place, I stand in the kitchen and realize I don’t know what to do with myself.
So I grab my phone.
I stare at it for a long time.
I don’t want to chase him. I don’t want to pressure him. I don’t want to become another person who expects him to perform grief on command.
But I also don’t want to sit here all night and pretend I’m fine.
Me: Are you okay?
Then I delete it.
Me: Do you want to come over?
Then delete it.
Finally, I type:
Me:I’m here. No pressure.
I stare at it for a beat, then hit send before I can overthink it.
The response doesn’t come immediately and that's okay.
Chapter Twenty Six
Choosing the Future
Jace
By mid-afternoon, whatever had been holding me upright finally loosened its grip. Not all at once. Just enough that the quiet starts to feel heavier than the noise that came before it. I’m sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee I reheated and forgot about, staring past the surface of it like answers might rise if I wait long enough.
The house is still, not quite lonely, just hollowed out in a way that feels deserved.
