Chapter 48 The Strain Of Silence

• The house was unusually quiet that evening. The kind of silence that settles in when two people are under the same roof but can barely look at each other. It was the kind of silence that made every creak of the floorboards feel like an intruder, every distant sound of the wind against the window an unwanted reminder of the distance between Celia and Alexander.
• They hadn’t spoken much since their conversation a few days ago. It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried—Celia had spent hours trying to figure out how to approach him, but each time she opened her mouth, the words seemed to choke in her throat. Alexander had been equally distant, though she knew it wasn’t out of malice. He was wrapped up in his pride, a stubbornness that both drove her crazy and made her want to pull him close, to force him to face the feelings neither of them could quite bring themselves to confront.
• Sitting in the living room, Celia couldn’t help but glance at Alexander from across the room. He was sitting at the large wooden desk by the window, his back slightly hunched as he read through papers, his jaw clenched in concentration. There was a sharp edge to his posture, as if he was physically trying to keep something at bay. She knew he wasn’t really reading. His mind was elsewhere, and so was hers.