"So what now?" Renee asked, breaking the silence that had settled like ash in the room. The weight of everything they had just learned hung in the air, thick and suffocating.
Eliana sniffled, her fingers still laced tightly with Luca's. Her shoulders slumped forward slightly, as though some invisible burden had only partially lifted. "Nicky's gone silent. Three days now. I've heard nothing. No calls. No texts. No messages through anyone."
She looked at both of them, her face puffy from crying but lit with a strange kind of fragile relief. "But I'm glad I told you. I feel like I can breathe again. . Elias was the only one I'd been able to talk to. He kept checking in—texting, calling, sometimes just sitting there while I cried."
She took a breath, her voice trembling slightly. "But having both of you now... it's different. I feel like I'm not carrying this alone anymore."
