Chapter 65

• MIKE
• The car was silent as I drove Ava home. The engine’s low hum filled the void between us, mingling with the faint squeal of wiper blades scraping against the windshield as dusk settled into cold drizzle. Her quiet sobs had stopped back at the atelier, replaced now by an eerie, defeated stillness. She sat curled into the passenger seat, arms wrapped tight around herself, her head resting against the window as streetlights slid across her face in fractured gold.
• My hands clenched the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. I felt both relieved that the truth was out, and sickened by what it had cost. Eloise’s face burned in my mind – the flatness of her voice, the hollow devastation in her eyes as she looked at us like strangers wearing masks of people she once loved. I wanted to believe we had done the right thing. Confession was supposed to set you free, wasn’t it?