Ava
The door closed behind Leonard, leaving a deafening silence in its wake. Chris turned without a word and stalked away, his shoulders tense.
I stood there for a moment, watching him walk upstairs, torn between following him and giving him space. In the end, I decided to let him process this on his own—he could come to me when he was ready to talk, whenever that may be.
For the rest of the day, Chris didn’t emerge from the bedroom. Lunchtime passed, and then dinner, and still he didn’t come downstairs. Even then, as his meals went cold on the kitchen table, I didn’t call to him.
But as the hours went by, I could hear him pacing back and forth up there, the floorboards creaking under his restless steps. No doubt he was in a deep state of thought, his mind whirling endless
