Chapter 223

• Claire's pov
• It had been a week.
• Seven long days that felt like both a blur and an eternity. The house had grown quieter, almost too quiet for me to process, like the silence that settles after a storm has torn everything apart. My thoughts wandered endlessly—Nathan’s attempts at mending us, Olivia’s presence that I was still adjusting to, and the confusing weight of knowing that my biological father was somewhere under the same roof.