Chapter 83 A Mother's Return

• The house was cloaked in silence, the kind that only came after a long, chaotic day. Most of the lights had been dimmed. Outside, the night was thick and still, broken only by the faint chirping of crickets and the soft hum of the air conditioning units.
• Regan’s mother moved through the familiar hallway quietly, her fingers grazing the smooth walls as if reacquainting herself with memories she’d long buried. Everything looked the same, yet nothing felt like it used to.
• She stopped just outside the private lounge at the end of the corridor — the one space in the house that had always been his. She didn’t knock.