Chapter 1 📖: The House of Silence

I didn't come here to feel anything.

But the moment the gate clanked shut behind me, something inside whispered: you're not walking out the same.

The Rowe estate was every bit the monster the headlines promised-stone walls, iron bones, and silence so thick it felt like grief with a heartbeat.

I dragged my suitcase through the gravel, my palms already sweating through the fake leather handles. Every step felt borrowed. Every breath tasted like betrayal.

"Miss Adair?"

The woman who greeted me was skin and structure. High cheekbones, perfect posture, not a single strand of hair out of place.

"I'm Mrs. Keller. Head housekeeper. Mr. Rowe is unavailable."

Of course he was.

She led me through the mansion like a surgeon through an operating room. No wasted movement. No unnecessary sound.

"Your responsibilities begin immediately," she said. "Theo doesn't speak. He hasn't since-"

A pause sharp enough to slice skin.

"-since the accident."

The accident. The one that left a woman dead and a man emotionally paralyzed.

We turned a corner and I saw him.

Not Cassian Rowe.

Theo.

A small boy, maybe five, sitting cross-legged by a bay window. Pale skin. Shadows under his eyes like he hadn't slept since the world ended. A stuffed tiger in his lap. Eyes fixed on the light like he was waiting for someone who promised to come back.

I wanted to say something.

But I felt it before I saw it-

A presence. Watching.

From the top of the stairs, in the dim halo of a chandelier...

Cassian Rowe.

My enemy. My employer.

And the man who would ruin me all over again.