Chapter 227 The Weight Of Silence

• POV: Riley
• I stood in the doorway of his study, my hand resting against the cold frame. The desk lamp cast a pool of sharp white light across the dark wood, leaving the rest of the room in shadow. Brett sat motionless behind the desk. Nothing was in front of him. No laptop, no reports, no phone. Just his hands, palms flat on the wood, staring at the far wall.
• For some days, I noticed Brett's mood shifted, and he had spent every one of them drifting somewhere far away from me. On Tuesday evening, he sat at the dinner table with a fork in his hand, staring blindly at his plate for ten minutes while Lily chattered about her school project. When I softly called his name, he blinked, set his fork down, and excused himself to the terrace without eating a bite.