Chapter Thirty-Two

The house felt impossibly quiet after my mother and Jack left for their trip. It had only been a few hours, but the silence weighed heavily on me, reminding me constantly that they were together, far away from here. Together in ways I couldn’t bear to think about. 

I sat on the couch in the living room, staring at the blank TV screen. The ticking of the clock on the wall was the only sound, each second stretching endlessly. My thoughts drifted, no matter how hard I tried to stop them, back to Jack. I thought about where they might be right now—maybe holding hands on a beach somewhere, laughing together, sharing private moments. The thought alone made my heart ache.

But beneath the ache, there was something else—something that scared me. I missed him. Not just as my mother’s partner, but as the man I’d been close to in ways I never should’ve been.

I let out a shaky breath, leaning back into the couch cushions as memories of him flooded my mind. The times whe