Evelyn POV
I didn't return home immediately after leaving the café.
For a while, I simply walked.
The evening air felt cooler than it had earlier, and the crowded streets gave me something else to focus on besides my thoughts.
The conversation with my mother and Miranda kept replaying in my head.
Not because it surprised me.
Because it didn't.
That was probably the strangest part.
A few months ago, hearing about their engagement would have shattered me completely.
Now it simply hurt.
The difference mattered.
Pain and devastation were not the same thing.
One left you broken.
The other reminded you that you were still healing.
By the time I finally returned home, darkness had already settled across the city.
Warm light glowed through the windows.
The sight alone made something inside me relax.
Home.
No matter how complicated life became, that word still meant something.
The moment I stepped through the front door, Liora appeared.
"There you are!"
I nearly jumped.
